
GopigM 



COPXRIGHT DEPOSfR 



PARTY CONTROL 
IN POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 



BY 

MARJORIE SHULER 



STEBBINS & COMPANY 

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK 
H27 Union Street 



> 



!.* 



^V 



Copyright, 1922 

BY 

STEBB1NS & COMPANY 



MAR 28 23 



C1A696949 
n -i u j 



CONTENTS 

PART I 
Political Party Control 

I. The Origin of Party Control . 3 

II. The Caucus, Convention, and Primary . . 10 

III. Party Organization for Control . . . . 16 

IV. Correcting the Abuses of Party Control . 27 

PART II 
Political Party Finances 

I. How Funds are Raised . . . . . . . 35 

II. The Uses of Party Funds • . . . > . 42 

III. Government Regulation of Party Funds . . 47 

IV. Abuses Still Unregulated ..... 65 
V. Some Suggested Remedies . . ' . . 157 

PARr in 

Defeating the Voter at the Polls 

I. The Voter and the Ballot .... 67 

II. The Machinery of Elections . . . . 77 

III. Types of Election Fraud 85 

IV. Some Suggested Remedies . . . . 91 

PART IV 
The State Legislature and its Work 

I. The Legislature and its Powers ... 97 

II. The Constitution of the Legislature . .102 

III. The Organization of the Legislature 107 

IV. The Legislatiye Process Ill 

V. Legislative Abuses 118 

VI. The Third House 121 

PART V 
Congress and its Work 
I. Congress and its Powers . . . . .131 

II. The Organization of Congress .... 137 

III. The Legislative Process . . . . .144 

IV. Legislative Abuses 154 

V. Suggested Remedies 157 



PART 1 

POLITICAL PARTY CONTROL 
ITS PURPOSE AND METHODS 



CHAPTER I 

THE ORIGIN OF PARTY CONTROL 

Meaning of Party Control. — Party control 
is the term used in American politics today to 
represent the domination by small groups of 
leaders who decide upon policies and candidates 
and enforce their will upon the great numbers of 
individual voters who make up party member- 
ship. Party control is synonymous with the ring, 
the organization, the machine. It represents all 
of the means by which bosses send out orders and 
carry out their wishes through the organization. 
In it are embraced the various manifestations of 
autocratic management of what was designed as 
a great democratic institution, the political party. 

Historical Development of Party Control. — 
The average voter speaks with satisfaction of the 
United States as a "free country," where the 
"people rule." But seldom does he stop to give 
serious consideration to the constant struggta 
written on every page of its history, to make and 

3 



4 Party Control 

keep it a land of freedom with every citizen par- 
ticipating in its government. 

Many of the founders of the nation had a very 
limited notion of the extent to which the people 
should rule. In a letter to Roger Sherman, John 
Adams speaks of this as a "monarchial republic." 
The Federalist accepted this narrow view. In 
speaking of Congress, it said, "The representa- 
tive body with too few exceptions to have any in- 
fluence on the spirit of the government, will be 
composed of landholders, merchants and men of 
the learned professions." Madison wrote, "De- 
mocracies have ever been spectacles of turbu- 
lence and contention, have ever been found in- 
compatible with personal security or the rights of 
property and have in general been as short in 
their lives as they have been violent in their 
deaths." 

In its early days the government of the repub- 
lic was directed by a small group of statesmen. 
Then, in the differences of opinion developed dur- 
ing the administration of Washington, men be- 
gan to come together in groups or parties pledged 
to certain principles and the election of chosen 
candidates to enforce those principles. 

Parties in their inception were opposed both 
by the statesmen in control, who saw their hold 
menaced, and by others who sincerely believed 



Party Control 5 

that the people were establishing a new set of 
leaders who would soon be in the position of dic- 
tators. Thus The Federalist refers to "the pesti- 
lential influence of party animosities/' and in his 
farewell address Washington said, "There is an 
opinion that parties in free countries are useful 
checks upon the administration of the govern- 
ment and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. 
This within certain limits is probably true; and, 
in governments of a monarchial class, patriotism 
may look with indulgence, if not with favor, on 
the spirit of the party. But in those of a popular 
character, in governments purely elective, it is a 
spirit not to be encouraged." 

On the other hand, Calhoun, opposing the 
choice of presidential electors by popular elec- 
tion, declared that "so far from giving power to 
the people it would be the most effectual way that 
could be devised of divesting them of it and trans- 
ferring it to party managers and cliques." In the 
Disquisition of Government, he wrote, "The con- 
flict between the two parties in the government of 
the numerical majority, tends necessarily to set- 
tle down into a struggle for the honors and 
emoluments of the government; and each, in or- 
der to obtain an object so ardently desired, will, 
in the process of the struggle, resort to whatever 
measure may seem best calculated to effect this 



6 Party Control 

purpose. The adoption by the one, of any meas- 
ure, however objectionable, which might give it 
an advantage, would compel the other to follow 
its example. In such a case, it would be indis- 
pensable to success, to avoid division and keep 
united; and hence, from a necessity inherent in 
the nature of such governments, each party must 
be alternately forced, in order to insure victory, 
to resort to measures to concentrate the control 
over its movements in fewer and fewer hands, as 
the struggle becomes more and more violent. 
This in process of time must lead to party organi- 
zation and party caucuses and discipline; and 
these to the conversion of the honors and emolu- 
ments of the government into means of reward- 
ing partisan services, in order to secure the fidel- 
ity and increase the zeal of the members of the 
party." 

In spite of opposition, political parties contin- 
ued to grow, and speedily the conflict between the 
masses of citizens and those who desired to con- 
trol them was transferred from outside to inside 
the parties. It was readily seen that political 
advantage could be gained by the men who had 
the backing of a large group of voters, voters who 
would blindly accept that which was offered to 
them if it had the label of their particular group. 
There began the effort to add members and to in- 



Party Control 7 

crease the fervor of those already allied with the 
parties. The means of stirring up one party by 
agitating against all laws enacted by the oppos- 
ing party in power was first seized upon. Then 
newspapers were developed from small an- 
nouncement sheets to large political organs, de- 
signed to strengthen the power of individual 
party leaders. Salaried appointments were next 
used as a source of power, and patronage, or the 
giving of positions in return for party services, 
was utilized. So the machine was perfected by 
establishing a network of voters, who, through 
hope of future favors or because of past obliga- 
tions, could be counted upon to execute the will 
of party leaders. 

In the first days of the republic the right of 
the franchise had been limited mainly to the large 
landowners and wealthy merchants. Catholics, 
Baptists, Jews, and other religious groups, pre- 
viously disfranchised, had been given the right to 
vote before the administration of Washington, 
and campaigns to further extend the suffrage fol- 
lowed. In each of these, party control played an 
important part. The history of the attempts to 
secure the ballot by the foreign-born, the work- 
ingmen, the negroes, the Indians, and recently 
by the women, is one of struggle against party 
machines, the leaders of which saw in such large 



8 Party Control 

additions to the electorate a menace to their con- 
trol. 

In the constitutional convention of 1820 in 
the state of New York, Chancellor Kent, who 
afterward became Chief Justice of the State Su- 
preme Court, argued against the removal of the 
land qualification from the point of view of the 
inability of the masses of the people to rule them- 
selves. Of universal suffrage he said, "It is too 
mighty an excitement for the moral constitution 
of men to endure/' and again he asserted, "The 
tendency of universal suffrage is to jeopardize 
the rights of property and the principles of lib- 
erty." 

In each instance, as public opinion grew suf- 
ficiently strong to force the granting to the dis- 
franchised of a voice in their own government, 
the political party organizations sought to bring 
about the changes as partisan moves. The party 
leaders wished these great groups of new voters 
to feel the obligation to take upon themselves a 
party yoke and in turn to hand it down to fol- 
lowing generations. There has been no more mis- 
chief-breeding element in American political life 
than the traditional prejudices and allegiances 
engendered in these attempts to maintain party 
control. 

Historical Motives for Party Control. — 



Party Control 9 

Party control was first established as a means of 
keeping the direction of government in the hands 
of the educated, the men of property, and the so- 
cially superior. However, with the growth of 
population and the spread of democratic ideas, 
political control underwent a decided change. 
The reins of authority passed from the hands of 
men who had held them because of their standing 
in society, and fell into the hands of those who 
had made politics their business. Instead of 
"representative" men, the voters came to accept 
as their party leaders those whom they would not 
tolerate either in business or social relationship. 
The South was much slower than the North to 
yield to the new order. The idea of government 
as a civic responsibility, of public office as a so- 
cial recognition, prevailed generally for a much 
longer time there than in the North, where the 
city population was constantly growing more and 
more complex. The situation recalls the 
prophecy of Jefferson, written in a letter to 
Madison, "I think our governments will remain 
virtuous for many centuries, as long as they (peo- 
ple) are chiefly agricultural; and this they will be 
as long as there shall be vacant lands in any part 
of America. When they get piled up upon one 
another in large cities, as in Europe, they will be- 
come corrupt as in Europe." 



CHAPTER II 

THE CAUCUS, THE CONVENTION AND THE PRIMARY 

Control of Caucus. — The first step at or- 
ganized control of the policies and nominations 
of parties was taken in the formation of the cau- 
cus. Small groups of voters met in conference to 
plan concerted action in order to enforce their 
desires upon the members of their parties. The 
caucus was at once the weapon of the leaders 
themselves who met for decision upon candidates 
and policies, and also of those members of the 
parties who were in rebellion against the control 
of the leaders and desired to overthrow them. 
Gradually the strongest ones in the control of 
the caucuses became the members of Congress, 
and here they used the authority of their posi- 
tions to build up greater power for themselves. 
Then came the revolt against caucuses and in 
favor of conventions as a means of giving the 
people a greater share in the conduct of party 
affairs. 

Control of the Convention. — Conventions in 
10 



Party Control 11 

the beginning were open to all who desired to at- 
tend and could afford to pay their transporta- 
tion. The manifest unfairness of this practice 
soon led to the establishment of meetings or elec- 
tions at which the voters of each district chose 
delegates whose expenses to the convention were 
paid from the party treasury, and who would go 
not to enforce their own wishes but the desires of 
those whom they had been chosen to represent. 
But the convention, started as a reform, soon 
became the emptiest of forms. Party leaders 
exercised their power to influence the choice of 
delegates. Watching the returns of the district 
elections, they would know how many delegates 
each could count upon. Thereupon the platform 
was written, the slate of nominees made up, the 
convention officials selected, and their speeches 
even written, all before the delegates convened. 
Delegates to conventions have confessed that they 
did not even hear all the names of the nominees 
for whom they voted and that their first informa- 
tion of what actually had transpired in the noisy 
hall came when the newspapers, damp from the 
presses, were thrust into their hands as they were 
leaving the hall. With the convention system of 
making party nominations entirely in the control 
of political leaders, the average voter was par- 
ticularly helpless. There was no choice save to 



12 Party Control 

stand by nominations forced by party leaders, or 
to bolt the party and vote for the opposing ticket, 
which was likely to have been nominated in ex- 
actly the same fashion. 

Control of Primary. — The next step in try- 
ing to bring about popular party management 
was the direct primary. Under this system voters 
enroll in the party of their choice and then have 
the privilege of voting at primary elections for 
the party candidates who are to stand for the 
general election. In bending primaries to their 
will, party leaders have supported candidates 
whom they chose and voters have aided in the 
schemes by signing without a question primary 
petitions for candidates of whom they have had 
no personal knowledge, solely because those peti- 
tions were presented to them by their district 
party leaders. 

Party leaders have attempted further to con- 
trol primaries by means of 'designating' conven- 
tions. In one state where there is a direct pri- 
mary law, it has been the custom for some years 
for one of the two dominant parties to hold a 
convention two months ahead of primary day to 
'designate' candidates. The primary of that 
party has thus been made a farce. The other 
party has a convention a month after the pri- 
mary and 'ratifies' the primary choice. Other 



Party Control 13 

states are having similar experiences with 'desig- 
nating' and 'ratifying' conventions, due to the 
reluctance of the party leaders to relinquish the 
hold which the convention gives them. While the 
primary is thus subject to some of the same 
abuses as the caucus and convention, its friends 
claim that it is a more open and public method of 
selecting candidates, that fraud and trickery are 
not so easily concealed from the voters as in a 
caucus or convention, and that the responsibility 
for choosing good candidates is put more directly 
up to the individual voter than in any other 
scheme yet tried. 

So it is that caucus, convention, primary, each 
in turn has suffered from the manipulations of 
the few political leaders who have come together, 
more or less secretly, to unite upon the candidates 
and policies, which they subsequently attempt to 
force upon the mass of voters in the party. 

The entire force and power of the machine is 
utilized to secure the election of these candidates. 
Funds are forthcoming for free use. Meetings 
are held. Circulars advertising the chosen can- 
didates are distributed. Favorable articles are 
printed in newspapers. Orders to support the 
candidates are given to the various voters in the 
district who serve the will of the leaders. On 



14 Party Control 

primary and election days automobiles take citi- 
zens to the polls to vote for them. 

On the other hand, independent candidates are 
discouraged. They have no machine ready to 
hand. All their organization must be built up at 
the moment. The average voter is not accus- 
tomed to assuming any financial responsibility for 
his party's funds. So the independent candidates 
find it difficult to raise money by popular sub- 
scription ; and, if they accept large contributions 
from individuals or corporations, they find them- 
selves bound in much the same fashion as the 
regular machine candidates. The power of the 
political party leaders is exercised to prevent 
them from securing desirable halls in which to 
hold meetings, or from appearing themselves at 
meetings of various kinds where their candidacy 
might be advertised. Bitter attacks on the inde- 
pendent candidates are organized in the news- 
papers and through party speakers. To face 
such personal abuse and slander as is likely to be 
injected into a political campaign takes a strong 
incentive and a high degree of moral courage. 

The independent candidate is attacked not only 
by the leaders of his own party but by their op- 
ponents as well. In a recent state campaign there 
was a keen fight against the nominee of one party, 
who a large number of party members declared 



Party Control 15 

was not their choice, but that of the bosses. Or- 
ders were given through the organization of the 
opposing party to stand by that candidate, so 
that, although he was cut off the ticket by many 
members of his own party, he received enough 
votes from members of the opposing party to 
make up his required majority. A political 
leader summed up the explanation of why this 
was done in these words, "If voters were per- 
mitted to get the habit of being independent in 
one party this year, there is no telling what they 
might do in another party next year." 



CHAPTER III 

PARTY ORGANIZATION FOR CONTROL 

Party Regularity. — My party right or 
wrong is the idea which political leaders endeavor 
to instill into the minds of voters. To place blind, 
unreasoning party loyalty above every other con- 
sideration and to accept without question what- 
ever is advanced in the name of the party — that 
is the sort of regularity that increases the power 
of political leaders, destroys the true value of 
parties, and corrupts the voters. 

In a government by parties, such as we have in 
the United States, faction is always a great dan- 
ger to the party. Therefore leaders urge upon 
voters that when the party candidate or policy 
has been decided upon, only disaster for all con- 
cerned will follow upon bolting the party or split- 
ting the ticket. It is easy to point out deadlocks 
where one party has succeeded in electing the 
executive and the opposing party the legislative 
body, and where the work of both has been neg- 
lected in the ensuing partisan feuds. Thus the 

16 



Party Control 17 

voter is frequently confronted with a difficult 
problem. He must choose between loyalty to his 
party and what he believes to be right. In being 
wholly loyal to his party, is he being wholly loyal 
to his country? The decision is one which his 
own conscience must make. 

Do the political leaders themselves never split 
the ticket? Yes, frequently, but quietly. Never 
with publicity, which might encourage independ- 
ence in the voters not wholly controlled by them. 
Always with the secrecy which enshrouds them 
with mystery, and helps to strengthen their con- 
trol. Sometimes they split the ticket as the re- 
sult of a bipartisan arrangement with the leaders 
of the opposing party. The election may promise 
to be a very close one and in order to save certain 
favored candidates they will agree to trade votes 
for those candidates by cutting names from their 
own ticket and substituting those of the oppos- 
ing party. Sometimes the voters have asserted 
themselves and secured a place on the ticket for 
an independent nominee who will not be obedient 
to the orders of the leaders. Again leaders of 
both old parties are likely to unite to throw votes 
to the endangered nominee. 

Not infrequently bipartisan arrangements leak 
out. In the last presidential election orders were 
given in one state to "bolt" a certain nominee, 



18 Party Control 

and, said the concluding sentence of the letters, 
"We will explain later." The orders were 
obeyed, but the explanation has not yet been 
given. In another state the leader of one of the 
dominant parties was said to have been a strong 
factor in forcing the nomination of one of the 
presidential candidates. A few days before elec- 
tion the workers of his organization were told to 
withdraw support from that candidate. After 
midnight on election day when the count of bal- 
lots was proceeding slowly in the polling places 
some of them carelessly discussed before other 
persons the political game they had helped to 
play. 

The Key Man. — To guard against inde- 
pendent moves on the part of the voters is one of 
the chief reasons why political leaders maintain 
close organizations. In their plans the "key 
man" has an important part. Generally among 
each twenty-five voters, there is one key man, who 
receives the orders of the leaders and passes them 
on to the twenty-four for whom he is responsible. 
Sometimes the number varies. It may be larger 
or it may be smaller. In a recent election it was 
cut to ten, one key man for each nine voters. 
The number ten also symbolized in this instance 
that the voters were expected to cast their ballots 
before ten o'clock in the morning. 



Party Control 19 

The key man, be he one of twenty-five or of 
ten, pursues practically the same methods. He 
may be openly and avowedly the representative 
of the leaders, but more often he accosts those 
for whom he is responsible in a more casual way. 
He may speak to them on the street, or at busi- 
ness, or in the moving picture houses, or even at 
churches. The key man, indeed, may be the 
clergyman himself. He discusses the coming 
election and seeks from these voters for whom he 
is to account to the leaders some statement of 
their intentions. If he learns that the voters are 
uncertain as to how they will act, that they dis- 
approve of a certain candidate or policy, that 
they even threaten to bolt the entire ticket, he 
reports this fact to the leaders. Immediately 
such voters are made storm centers. Circular let- 
ters from party headquarters are poured upon 
them, men in whose interest they have reason to 
feel flattered seek them out and urge them to vote 
the regular ticket. Gradually voters who have 
contemplated independence are made to feel how 
peculiar and extraordinary such conduct would 
be, and slowly but surely many are in this way 
herded back into the regular party lines. 

Many an unassuming citizen would be startled 
to see the statements he has made in a supposed 
friendly conversation with a neighbor all neatly 



20 Party Control 

typed and filed in the municipal or state head- 
quarters of his party. But there they are, for the 
key man reports all interviews with those for 
whom he is responsible and it is upon these re- 
ports that political leaders base their predictions, 
decide upon pivotal points for concentration and 
determine the strategy of the campaign. In 
many states in which the political organization 
is a close one, such lists are kept permanently on 
file, being changed with the developments of each 
new campaign. In one state where one political 
party has maintained its dominance for a genera- 
tion, the lists are divided into three parts, those 
who are "sure" voters, those who are "uncertain" 
and those who "fumble in the booth," the "fumb- 
blers" being those, who, once behind the curtains 
in a polling booth, have a predilection for split- 
ting their tickets according to their consciences. 

Controlling Officials. — having nominated 
and elected the desired candidates, political lead- 
ers maintain their control through these same 
officials. Those who owe their elections to organi- 
zations, who can see the great difficulty of secur- 
ing re-nomination and re-election unless they 
follow the mandates of the "ring," or are strong 
enough to build up a "machine" of their own, are 
naturally amenable to the orders they receive. It 
has been said that nearly every man in political 



Party Control 21 

life desires to be re-elected to the office he holds 
or given some higher one. Where this is true it is 
easy for party leaders to maintain their control, 
and for the interests of the people as a whole to 
be sacrificed to partisan advantage. Each official 
has a certain amount of patronage at his dis- 
posal, and where the political leader has control 
this patronage is dispensed as he requests, 
strengthening his power as well as that of the 
party. To meet this situation it has been urged 
that there be adopted in this country some such 
system as that in use in Switzerland, where once 
an official is elected he becomes responsible di- 
rectly to the people as a whole and ceases to have 
any special ties as a party representative. 

Furthering Party Control between Elec- 
tions. — While party leaders are more in evidence 
at elections, their control is extended during the 
interim by means of a variety of instruments, in 
addition to the aid given by elected officials. 
Chief among these is the social club. Many small 
towns have at least one political club and usually 
there are two, one of each of the two dominant 
parties. In the larger cities each district has its 
club or clubs. Sometimes the club is rich and 
powerful, with its own house fitted up for meet- 
ings, dances, billiards, and dinners. Sometimes 
the club hires a hall permanently or for certain 



22 Party Control 

evenings. Some of the clubs issue their own small 
newspapers. Each arranges meetings, dinners, 
dances, card parties, theater parties. 

One voter with a strong sense of party respon- 
sibility recently joined one of the largest of these 
clubs in New York City. The club is in a wealthy 
district, maintains its own house and runs a small 
newspaper. At one of the first meetings which 
the voter attended, the president of the club rose 
and said, "I have in my hand a list of the dele- 
gates to be nominated from this district to the 
party convention. I do not wish any other sug- 
gestions. There will be no contests." The voter 
attempted to register a protest against this 
method of dictation and was hissed down by his 
fellow members, men and women of education 
and wealth, a type who would naturally be ex- 
pected to assert their freedom. 

Tammany Hall. — One of the most striking 
examples of a combined social and political or- 
ganization by which a group of leaders maintain 
their ascendency over the voters is Tammany 
Hall in New York City. Other cities, notably 
Philadelphia, Chicago and Cincinnati, have 
strong organizations of this character, which 
work between elections, as well as at election time ; 
but Tammany Hall is by far the best known ex- 
ample of this type. 



Party Control 23 

Tammany Hall dates back to 1800 when 
Aaron Burr wrested the control of New York 
City from Alexander Hamilton by using as a 
political machine the social club known as the 
Columbian Order. From that time on, this so- 
ciety, though eventually changing its name, 
continued to entrench itself in the political life 
of the city and to perfect its organization and 
control, until today it constitutes one of the most 
effective political machines in the world. In its 
present form Tammany Hall is organized down 
to the smallest unit. In each district there is a 
leader who serves as well on the general city 
committee. In addition to the leader each dis- 
trict is represented on the city committee by one 
representative for every twenty-five Democratic 
votes cast in the district in the preceding guber- 
natorial election. Every leader knows the exact 
status of every family in his district. In case of 
poverty, food, clothing, and work are provided. 
In every way the interests of the families are 
looked after. Numbers of social affairs are ar- 
ranged, and as a result the people are drawn to- 
gether in the closest and fiercest sort of loyalty 
to the particular group of party leaders that di- 
rect the organization. 

The Unorganized Voter. — Against the 
methods of the party machine the unorganized 



24 Party Control 

voter is helpless. Whether he be a part of the 
majority or of the minority within his party, so 
long as he is in opposition to the party leaders, 
he has no chance to make his point of view effec- 
tive. Nowhere more than in the political party 
has it been made evident that organization is 
power. Political organization may be good, it 
becomes evil only when it is used to dictate to the 
party instead of carrying out the dictates of the 
party. The individual voter learns that if he is 
to have any weight he must combine with others 
with whose general views he is more or less closely 
in agreement. 

There are many illustrations of what may be 
accomplished by units of organization among the 
voters. In the Republican landslide in 1920, a 
Democratic senator was elected to the legislature 
from New York City by a non-partisan group 
of voters, who thoroughly canvassed the district, 
calling on every voter, man or woman, passing 
out circulars, putting posters in shop and home 
windows, having slides shown in the moving pic- 
ture houses and holding meetings everywhere in 
churches, halls and on the streets. This cam- 
paign was successful while a state-wide cam- 
paign of the same sort failed, largely because in 
the small group the organization was perfected 
down to the most minute detail while the larger 



Party Control 25 

group was not able to work out so thorough a 
scheme. 

Large groups are now forming within the par- 
ties in many states, voters who are not willing to 
leave their parties, but who desire to make evident 
their rebellion against control by party leaders. 
These groups select independent candidates for 
the primaries and conduct as effective campaigns 
as possible, but pledge themselves to abide by the 
decision of the primaries and to vote for the suc- 
cessful nominees of their parties. 

The chafing of voters, who usually call them- 
selves liberals, against domination by party lead- 
ers, usually classed as conservatives, has resulted 
in the formation of new national parties, which 
have proved what organization can accomplish. 
The Republican party of today is the result of a 
union of a number of these small groups of citi- 
zens who were in rebellion against party con- 
trol. 

In 1892 farmers and others who believed in the 
levying of income taxes and in the popular elec- 
tion of United States senators founded the 
Populist party. In 1912 there came another 
break when people of all classes who had an ideal 
of political parties as their servants instead of 
their masters founded the Progressive party. 
Both of these groups saw many of the definite re- 



26 Party Control 

forms which were their rallying calls made part 
of the platforms of the other parties. The ma- 
jority of both groups followed their principles 
back into the other parties in the belief that they 
would be able to make themselves felt. The re- 
sult has been to continue the constant rebellion 
within the parties, but with no distinct national 
cleavage on the sole issue of control by party lead- 
ers versus control by the people. 



CHAPTER IV 

CORRECTING THE ABUSES OF PARTY GOVERNMENT 

The Development of State Supervision. — 
In their origin, political parties were purely vol- 
untary organizations. With their development 
the state has gradually taken over in varying de- 
grees control of their rules as a means of safe- 
guarding the interests of the masses of members. 
Party laws have thus become to a certain extent 
state laws. So that as abuses have developed 
states have attempted to extend their authority 
or to set up legal means of remedying the de- 
fects. Texas, for instance, attempts to keep its 
political parties responsive to the will of the 
majority of their members by providing that 
upon petition of ten per cent, of the members, 
there may be secured the submission of any party 
policy at a primary referendum. 

The campaign pamphlet law was first insti- 
tuted in Oregon. It is intended to provide as 
inexpensive a way as possible for conveying in- 
formation concerning candidates to the voters. 

27 



28 Party Control 

Independent candidates have found the cost of 
addressing appeals to the voters a great handicap. 
In one state it costs nearly one hundred thousand 
dollars to circularize each voter just once. Under 
the campaign pamphlet law parties and candi- 
dates prepare material which they send to the 
state authorities. This is printed for them at 
cost price and sent to the voters. The state is 
thus not obliged to assume any financial obliga- 
tion while the candidates and parties secure the 
printing for an amount far below what it would 
cost them individually to have the work done. 

Corrective Measures. — California has a law 
providing that any organization of electors which 
at the last preceding general election polled at 
least three per cent, of the entire vote of the state 
or election district is called a party. 

The independent voter also benefits by a law 
in Massachusetts, where participation in a party 
caucus is considered sufficient evidence to estab- 
lish party membership. A voter participating in 
the caucus of one political party is disqualified 
from participation in the caucus of any other po- 
litical party during the ensuing twelve months, 
"but no political committee shall prevent any 
voter from participating in a caucus of its party 
for the reason that the voter has supported an 
independent candidate for political office." 



Party Control 29 

In many communities organizations designed 
to promote good citizenship send out or have 
published in the newspapers, record votes of can- 
didates who come up for re-election, together with 
their platform pledges and those of new candi- 
dates. This information, when it is mailed, 
usually includes a sample ballot, thus giving the 
voter an opportunity to decide intelligently for 
whom he will vote and also to learn how to cast 
his ballot according to his wishes. 

Why Control is Possible. — Control by the 
parties is possible only because of the existence 
of a large body of citizens who, through indolence 
or indifference, allow themselves to be controlled. 
Party leaders pre-suppose that there are large 
groups of citizens who are thus indifferent to 
their obligations, and of other large groups who, 
though not indifferent, do not know how to pro- 
ceed to remedy conditions. In the United States, 
where we have regarded ourselves as an intelli- 
gent, thinking, alert people, the war revealed that 
one out of every four drafted men could not read 
or write. Lacking education, how were those 
men to become acquainted with public questions, 
what capacity had they for determining their own 
opinions, what impulses could arouse them to ex- 
press civic ideals in action? 

But it is not only our illiterate electorate which 



30 Party Control 

has made a national holiday out of elections, or 
has been satisfied to rest in ignorance of political 
problems. It has been said without contradic- 
tion that ten per cent, of the American people 
control the other ninety per cent. Are we to lay 
upon the ten per cent, the entire blame? Or are 
we to admit that there is nowhere a party boss 
without lazy citizens willing to be bossed? Are 
we to see political dictators, not as corrupters of 
the people, but as barometers of the people? If 
we are willing to do that, then it is really worth 
our while to look into the methods by which par- 
ties control voters and to consider how these in- 
stitutions, so vital to our democracy, may be kept 
as our servants and not become our masters. 

So long as voters permit the suppression of 
independent thought and action through accept- 
ing the nominations made for them, so long as 
they vote a straight ticket for the sole reason that 
it is labelled by their own particular party em- 
blem, so long as they leave to 'whoever can be 
gotten' the work of canvassing before elections, 
just so long will they be contributing to party 
control, which means the rule of the few. 

In fostering blind loyalty political leaders have 
successfully implanted the idea of party as an 
impersonal functioning entity. Members lose 
sight of the fact that it is they who really make 



Party Control 31 

the party, and that when its direction falls into 
the control of a powerful minority whose poli- 
cies are contrary to the wishes of the majority, 
there should be as vigorous a contest as would 
follow the seizing of a church organization by a 
small group undertaking to re-write or re-inter- 
pret the creed accepted by the great body of ad- 
herents of the faith. 

Suggestions for Remedy. — In discussing 
party control it is well to bear in mind the words 
of the Virginia Bill of Rights, "That all power is 
vested in, and consequently derived from, the 
people; that magistrates are their trustees and 
servants, and at all times amenable to them. 

"That government is, or ought to be, instituted 
for the common benefit, protection, and security 
of the people, nation, or community; of all the 
various modes and forms of government, that is 
the best which is capable of producing the great- 
est degree of happiness and safety, and is most 
effectually secured against the danger of mal- 
administration; and that, when any government 
shall be found inadequate or contrary to these 
purposes, a majority of the community have an 
indubitable, inalienable, and indefeasible right to 
reform, alter, or abolish it, in such manner as 
shall be judged most conducive to the public 
weal." 



32 Party Control 

Political party leaders fear above all things 
the formation of small community groups for 
the discussion of politics and the dissemination 
of knowledge concerning political methods, and 
the union of these groups in state and national 
organizations. It has only been by keeping the 
great mass of voters in ignorance concerning 
actual procedure in political affairs that the lead- 
ers have maintained control. The substitution of 
open conferences for secret arrangements means 
their downfall. 

Whether the solution comes within the present 
parties, or as many persons believe it will, by 
means of a new party, it will only be possible as 
the individual voter makes politics a vital part of 
his daily life. When political problems are every- 
where discussed over firesides, on street corners, 
and in social groups, and the voter has a vision of 
settling these problems, not vocally, but at the 
ballot box, then there will come intelligent under- 
standing and concerted action, breaking the con- 
trol of the few and developing the control of the 
many. Then there will come a dedication of 
minds in a peacetime service to the nation, no less 
noble than is the dedication of lives in a period 
of war. 



PART II 

POLITICAL PARTY FINANCES 
THEIR ORIGIN AND USES 



CHAPTER I 



HOW FUNDS ARE RAISED 



The Growth of Party Expenses. — The 
methods of financing used by political parties 
and candidates for office present one of the grav- 
est problems of American public life. Just as 
our economic institutions have multiplied their 
organizations to a tremendous extent, carried on 
advertising campaigns of great magnitude and 
established vast scales of expenditure and profit, 
so our political institutions have increased their 
machinery, developed the art of public appeal 
and conducted themselves with a lavishness be- 
yond that of any other country. 

Many of these expenses are what might be 
termed of legitimate growth. They are due to 
the multiplication of population, to the tremen- 
dous development of advertising in this coun- 
try, and to the elaborate degree to which we have 
perfected organizations of all kinds. But far 
greater is the increase in illegitimate expendi- 
tures, the sums spent in secret ways to influence 

85 



36 Political Party Finances 

elections. These are the amounts for which there 
is no accounting to the rank and file of the party 
itself. These are the expenditures of which the 
average voter never hears, or which he is likely 
to discredit if rumor brings them to his ears. 

Corruption Resulting from Gifts to Parties. 
— These corrupt features of political party finan- 
cing are not of recent development. The pages 
of political history are stained with the stories of 
great campaign funds spent by national and state 
party committees, individual political leaders, the 
candidates themselves or friends and relatives of 
candidates. Indeed so general has been the use 
of money in politics that it has frequently been 
said that no candidate might hope for any great 
measure of success unless he was personally 
wealthy or backed by large financial interests. 

In recent years there has been a wave of agita- 
tion against the spending of great sums in con- 
nection with elections. Many laws have been 
created, both federal and state, for the express 
purpose of curbing such expenditures. To the 
average citizen these laws seem adequate and effi- 
cient. But let him visit the states accounted most 
progressive in their regulation of political expen- 
ditures and he will be told that for every law 
there is a well-known evasion, for every convic- 
tion under the law there are dozens of offenders 



Political Party Finances 37 

who are never brought to court, or if they are 
brought before judges, are acquitted or let off 
with the lightest penalties possible. 

The questions for the citizen to have in mind in 
considering political financing are these: What 
returns are made to those who give large sums 
to the campaign funds of parties or candidates? 
What type of service may be expected by the 
public from those officials whose elections have 
been secured by money? What allegiance is due 
them from the members of their own parties or 
the voters in general ? What is the effect upon a 
nation and people whose elections are not safe- 
guarded from the influence of money? 

The Average Citizen as Contributor. — There 
are three distinct groups who contribute to politi- 
cal campaign chests. The first one does so 
openly ; the other two secretly. In the first group 
are the average voters, who have a sincere desire 
to see the principles of their party triumph. 
Sometimes wealthy men and women make large 
gifts; sometimes the money comes from those of 
small means and represents a real sacrifice. It is 
for this group that political party treasurers come 
out into the open. They make appeals at meet- 
ings and in the newspapers. Often special com- 
mittees are formed to advance a certain policy 
which appeals to the voters. Contributions are 



38 Political Party Finances 

solicited entirely in the name of this policy and 
from every corner of the country gifts come from 
the voters. Occasionally funds may be sought 
in the name of a great political leader of the past. 
Sometimes voters may be stimulated to give for 
the sake of their grandchildren, the sons of their 
college, or some one else dear to their hearts. 
This is the right kind of giving, the giving with 
no expectation of a personal return and with no 
idea of controlling the party policies. But it 
forms a very small part indeed of the sum raised 
for any campaign. 

Business Corporations as Contributors. — 
The larger part of the fund comes from the other 
two sources, the secret contributors. One of 
these sources is the corporations, business inter- 
ests, commercial institutions of various kinds who 
want favors,,, perhaps franchises or charters to 
operate public service concerns, perhaps the pas- 
sage of laws to protect their business or the re- 
peal of laws which are proving harmful to 
their business. The prevalence of this system is 
well illustrated by a frank statement made in 
an investigation conducted by the United States 
Senate during the second session of the fifty-third 
Congress. In that investigation the president of 
a great corporation is quoted as saying, "It is my 
impression that wherever there is a dominant 



Political Party Finances 39 

party, wherever the majority is large, that is the 
party which gets the contribution, because that is 
the party which controls the local matters." 
Having spoken of the prevalence of the system, 
he added, "Every individual and corporation and 
firm, trust, or whatever you call it, does these 
things, and we do them." In what are called 
doubtful states, which are carried sometimes by 
one political party, sometimes by another, rail- 
roads and corporations desiring political favors 
have been known to safeguard their interests by 
contributing not only to one, but to both domi- 
nant parties. 

Candidates as Contributors. — The second 
group of secret contributors to political funds 
consists of the candidates themselves who are as- 
sessed large sums for their nominations. The 
party ordinarily assesses a candidate on the maxi- 
mum basis, exacting a certain percentage, pos- 
sibly five per cent, not only of his first year's 
salary but of the entire amount he is due to re- 
ceive for his whole term. Thus if the office for 
which he is running pays five thousand dollars 
a year for four years, the candidate is assessed 
five per cent, on twenty thousand dollars, or one 
thousand dollars. Or he may be required to pay 
ten per cent. Where there are as many as fifty 
candidates, the party may raise fifty thousand 



40 Political Party Finances 

dollars in this way. While some men have been 
elected to office without paying any assessment 
at all, others have been put off the ticket or have 
been scratched and defeated because they did not 
pay their assessments. 

In addition to the officials to be elected there 
are many appointments to be made, and contri- 
butions are secured from those who understand 
that they will receive appointments if the party 
is successful in the election. The President of 
the United States controls appointments with sal- 
aries totalling millions of dollars. The governor 
of every state has under his control appointments 
to commissions and offices of various kinds which 
bring big returns to their holders. State legis- 
latures have many big appointments, as well as 
the minor ones of sergeants-at-arms, door-keep- 
ers, journal clerks, index clerks, revision clerks, 
messengers, postmasters, librarians, janitors, 
stenographers, committee clerks. Similarly there 
are appointments to be made in every munici- 
pality. Large funds are raised through contribu- 
tions made by those expecting such appoint- 
ments. Officeholders occasionally contribute not 
only to their own party, but to the other domi- 
nant party. There are certain government com- 
missions which are required by law to include 
members from both dominant parties. Members 



Political Party Finances 41 

already serving on those commissions may make 
secret gifts to both parties in order to make sure 
that they will retain their places no matter who 
carries the election. 



CHAPTER II 

THE USES OF PARTY FUNDS 

Legitimate Expenses.— The open ways in 
which money is spent in political campaigns in- 
clude the establishment of headquarters with the 
expense of rent, heat, light, clerical aid and sup- 
plies. From the headquarters tons of literature, 
circulars, letters, posters and pictures of candi- 
dates are sent out, requiring funds for supplies, 
printing, postage and labor. Nor are these all 
that headquarters distribute. There are buttons, 
badges, armbands, flags and pennants, automo- 
bile posters and all sorts of advertising novelties. 
Meetings constitute another large item of expen- 
diture. Halls must be secured, automobiles to 
carry speakers, sometimes special trains for more 
extensive tours. Large sums are spent for ad- 
vertising through newspapers, magazines and 
moving-picture houses. Entertainments of va- 
rious kinds are given, dinners, dances, picnics, 
parades, all of them costing a great deal. Last, 
but by no means least expensive are the workers, 

42 



Political Party Finances 43 

speakers, organizers, publicity agents and scouts, 
who are sent out during the campaign. 

Questionable Uses of Party Funds. — The 
foregoing are usually accounted legitimate ex- 
penses. But there are other less known ways in 
which money is spent and which are not so justi- 
fiable. There may be carried on the party pay- 
roll those who do not openly work for candidates 
but who try secretly and in devious ways to in- 
fluence voters. Then there is an allotment of 
money to every party leader, down to the least 
significant precinct captain, each receiving a cer- 
tain sum for election day use and for which no 
accounting is asked. The money is technically 
understood to be for hiring automobiles or other 
conveyances to take laggard voters to the polls, 
payment of party workers at the polls, luncheons 
or other incidentals for these same workers, but 
since there is no means of ascertaining to what 
uses the leader puts the money, there is no knowl- 
edge of the extent to which it is used in actually 
influencing the voters. 

Pre-primary Expenses.— Before the pri- 
mary, candidates are expected to bear their own 
expenses. What usually happens, however, is 
that the candidates endorsed by political leaders 
receive aid, while independent candidates must 
raise their own funds. After the primary, the 



44 Political Party Finances 

party as a whole is expected to bear at least a 
part of the cost of electing its own ticket. Some- 
times curious incidents develop, however. In one 
state recently the candidate for United States 
Senator on the ticket of one party was strongly 
opposed by the progressives within his own party. 
The opposing candidate on the ticket of the other 
dominant party told his friends that he received 
no aid from his party leaders, even after the pri- 
mary, that the general party advertising did not 
urge his election, that no meetings were arranged 
for him, and that he was compelled to bear the 
burden of his own campaign. There was ap- 
parently a bipartisan combination by which the 
reactionary leaders in both parties had agreed to 
stand by the first-named candidate ; and the sec- 
ond man, who had been paying for his own cam- 
paign, was overwhelmingly defeated at the elec- 
tion. 

General Use of Funds. — 'Another phase of 
political expenditure, which is not well under- 
stood by the average voter, is that money raised 
by the members of a political party in one state 
is furnished to the leaders of that same party in 
other states where funds are less available. Thus 
a state which might be supposed to decide its own 
elections by choosing its own candidates, conduct- 
ing its own campaigns, electing the; officials of 



i 



Political Party Finances 45 

its own choice will in reality be influenced by 
money sent each month from outside the state to 
the leaders of the weaker political party within 
the state. These monthly contributions are raised 
if the local leaders can show that there is a chance 
for them to carry the state at the next election. 
Thus it is that in more than one national election 
states have been swung from one party column to 
another, the result being largely determined by 
money raised outside those states. 



CHAPTER III 

GOVERNMENT REGULATION OF PARTY FUNDS 

Corrupt Practises Acts. — Just as party rules 
controlling primaries and elections have been 
taken over and made into state laws, so party- 
funds are coming to be treated as public funds. 
Laws have been framed to regulate party levies 
and expenditures, and these laws themselves il- 
lustrate the abuses of party financing which have 
existed and still exist throughout the country. 
These laws are termed corrupt practices acts. 
There is a federal corrupt practices act, and there 
are similar ones in the various states. 

Limitation of Candidates'. Expenditures. — 
One of the important things which the corrupt 
practices acts attempt to do is to limit the sums 
which candidates may spend in an election. As 
an example, the federal corrupt practices act 
limits candidates for the United States Congress 
as follows : 

"No candidate for Representative in Congress or 

46 



Political Party Finances %7 

for Senator of the United States shall give, contribute, 
expend, use, or promise, or cause to Jbe given, contrib- 
uted, expended, used, or promised, in procuring his 
nomination and election, any sum, in the aggregate, in 
excess of the amount which he may lawfully give, con- 
tribute, expend, or promise under the laws of the state 
in which he resides: Provided, That no candidate for 
Representative in Congress shall give, contribute, ex- 
pend, use, or promise any sum, in the aggregate, ex- 
ceeding $5,000 in any campaign for his nomination and 
election; and no candidate for Senator of the United 
States shall give, contribute, expend, use, or promise 
any sum, in the aggregate, exceeding $10,000 in any 
campaign for his nomination and election. 

"Provided further, That money expended by any such 
candidate to meet and discharge any assessment, fee, or 
charge made or levied upon candidates by the laws of 
the state in which he resides, or for his necessary per- 
sonal expenses, incurred for himself alone, for travel 
and subsistence, stationery and postage, writing or 
printing (other than in newspapers), and distributing 
letters, circulars, and posters, and for telegraph and 
telephone service, shall not be regarded as an expendi- 
ture within the meaning of this section, and shall not 
be considered any part of the sum herein fixed as the 
limit of expenses and need not be shown in the state- 
ments herein reuqired to be filed. 

The exceptions in this act open the way for 
spending thousands of dollars in excess of the 
limit set up. Printing for instance is one of the 
heaviest campaign expenses, and printing is ex- 
empt in the federal act. To circularize the vot-* 
ers of one state just on:ce may involve the spend- 



48 Political Party Finances 

ing of a hundred thousand dollars for postage, 
and postage is another exempt item in the federal 
act. Then again, a candidate may keep his per- 
sonal expenses within the amount prescribed, but 
there is no provision for charging against him 
any part of the general campaign waged on be- 
half of the whole ticket, the meetings at which 
other candidates for other offices speak, the pa- 
rades and dinners, and the advertising instituted 
for the success of the party, not for him alone. 

The Utah Law. — Utah has a very progres- 
sive law limiting election expenses. The Utah 
law provides that a candidate for United States 
senator may not spend on his campaign more 
than four thousand dollars; United States rep- 
resentative, two thousand dollars ; governor, three 
thousand dollars; presidential elector, five hun- 
dred dollars; state senator, two hundred dollars; 
state representative, one hundred dollars. Can- 
didates for any other state, county, city or town- 
ship office may not spend an amount exceeding 
fifteen per cent, of their first year's salary in the 
case of a four-year term, nor ten per cent, of their 
first year's salary in the case of a two-year term. 
A minimum expenditure of one hundred dollars 
is permitted to all candidates. In addition, no 
state political party committee may spend a sum 
in excess of twelve and one-half cents for each 



Political Party Finances 49 

vote cast for the party in the preceding guber- 
natorial election. County committees are simi- 
larly limited. 

The limitations imposed on expenditures of 
candidates vary in the different states. After 
an election in New York state in which a candi- 
date for governor was reported to have spent 
$256,000 and still another candidate to have spent 
$30,000 to secure the office of state senator, which 
pays $1,500 a year, a law was enacted in that 
state limiting candidates for governor to the ex- 
penditure of $10,000 and other state candidates 
to $6,000. 

Prohibited Expenditures. — The corrupt 
practices laws prohibit certain expenditures in 
political campaigns. Each law provides against 
the direct buying and selling of votes, and yet 
that has been known to take place repeatedly, 
sometimes with the conviction of those partici- 
pating, more often without their ever being 
brought to court. The laws vary in the matter 
of other prohibited expenses and most of them 
may be seriously questioned with regard to their 
enforcement. Every citizen should be familiar 
with them, however, so that infringements may 
be recognized and because more general knowl- 
edge will tend to the improvement and unifica- 
tion of the laws. 



50 Political Party Finances 

Additional State Regulations.— In some 
states there is a provision against treating, can- 
didates and their managers not being allowed to 
buy either food or drink for voters. The giving 
of huge banquets has been a frequent way of 
attracting votes to candidates, and before the en- 
actment of national prohibition, candidates were 
expected to visit saloons in their districts and buy 
drinks for all who happened to be present. In 
one state where the elections have been notori- 
ously corrupt, a candidate who ran several times 
for United States senator was in the habit of 
depositing large sums of money with hotel mana- 
gers so that men might be made welcome in his 
name at hotel bars and cigar counters. When 
the sum had been used up in this way, the can- 
didate promptly made another deposit. 

Another provision of the corrupt practices acts, 
not always enforced, prohibits the payment by 
political parties or candidates of poll taxes. 
Some states still levy a head tax, the payment of 
which is usually a requisite for voting. It is often 
the custom for those who desire to swing votes in 
a certain direction to pay the poll taxes for citi- 
zens who could not or would not otherwise qual- 
ify as voters, or who are willing in return for the 
payment of the tax to cast their votes in any de- 
sired direction. 



Political Party Finances 51 

A similar prohibition is levied against the pay- 
ment of naturalization fees. Political parties and 
candidates have made a custom of conducting 
naturalization classes and paying the fees of new 
citizens in order to secure their votes. Under the 
domination of a notorious politician in New York 
City several years ago the number of annual 
naturalizations jumped from 9,200 to 41,000. 

A very few states have now prohibited the pro- 
viding of conveyances by parties or candidates 
to take voters to the polls. Not only has this been 
a heavy item of expenditure in past years, but it 
has led to much rivalry and to attempts to cor- 
ner the available supply of vehicles. When the 
number of carriages which could be hired was 
smaller than it is in this day of automobiles, one 
party or one faction within a party would hire 
all of the vehicles in a certain district so that op- 
posing parties or candidates could not offer this 
bribe to the voters. The Utah law prohibits the 
hiring of conveyances to take voters to the polls 
except when two or more parties combine at joint 
expense to take sick, disabled, aged or infirm citi- 
zens to cast their ballots. And when this is done 
fhe conveyance is not permitted to carry any 
banner or poster for any party or candidate, nor 
may any party worker ride in it. 

Another prohibition, still quite rare, is directed 



52 Political Party Finances 

against the payment of workers at the polls by 
either parties or candidates. In most states it is, 
however, the custom for the more important can- 
didates and the parties to have workers at the 
polls giving last-minute arguments to the voters. 
These workers are usually paid ten dollars a day, 
the same fee as that received by the regular elec- 
tion officials. 

Prohibited Contributions. — The corrupt 
practises laws also undertake to curb contribu- 
tions to political campaign funds. As the result 
of the inquiry into insurance companies con- 
ducted by Charles E. Hughes and of other state 
and national investigations, in which it has been 
proven that large corporations have given to 
campaign funds in the hope of influencing future 
policies and laws, many states now prohibit cor- 
porations from making such contributions. 

Another forward movement is the attempt to 
prevent the forcing of contributions from elected 
or appointed officials. The system itself is a bad 
one and many candidates have suffered heavy 
losses as a result of it, but perhaps the greatest 
injustices have been suffered by government em- 
ployees on small salaries. Rural free delivery 
clerks earning four hundred dollars a year have 
been assessed as much as seventy dollars for their 
party treasuries. The extension of civil service, 



Political Party Finances 53 

or appointment by merit, has helped to correct 
this evil and it is now a criminal offense to solicit 
funds from civil service employees or to ask for 
political contributions inside any federal building. 
This is evaded by the making of voluntary con- 
tributions by civil service employees, and by so- 
liciting from those employed in federal buildings 
outside of office hours. Among the states which 
have supplemented federal regulations of this 
kind is Massachusetts, which has a law prohibit- 
ing the soliciting of money for campaign pur- 
poses by any public official or from any state or 
city or town employee. 

Publications.— Some of the most important 
provisions of the corrupt practises acts relate to 
newspapers. In the first place, the aid of news- 
papers is sought to enforce the regulations deal- 
ing with prohibited expenditures and prohibited 
contributions and to arouse public opinion against 
the evils in political financing. To this end the 
federal government and many state governments 
require candidates for election to submit to the 
various secretaries of states for publication in the 
newspapers full accounts of the amounts raised 
for their campaigns and the ways in which the 
money is spent. It is repeatedly stated that ways 
to evade the law are found and that accounts filed 
by no means represent the actual sums which are 



54 Political Party Finances 

raised and spent in these campaigns. Further- 
more, the criticism is made that most of these laws 
require the filing of accounts only after primaries 
and elections, whereas if statements were de- 
manded both before and after primaries and elec- 
tions, the attitude of the voters toward certain 
candidates might be entirely changed. 

The second way in which newspapers and 
magazines come under the attention of the cor- 
rupt practises* acts is in the requirement that po- 
litical publicity for which newspapers receive 
money shall be labelled advertisement. Utah has 
gone a step further, requiring publishers to file 
sworn statements of the ownership of their news- 
papers and periodicals before publishing any po- 
litical advertisements and candidates or political 
committees publishing such advertisements to 
submit sworn declarations of any financial inter- 
est which they have in such newspapers or peri- 
odicals. 



CHAPTER IV 

ABUSES STILL UNREGULATED 

The Control of Newspapers.— One of the 
most important factors in political campaigns 
which the present laws do not adequately reach 
is the newspapers. The Utah law comes more 
closely than any other to exposing the inter-rela- 
tionships which exist between politicians and pub- 
lishers. But no adequate means have as yet been 
established to check the propaganda which pub- 
lications may send forth daily, nor to disclose the 
real forces which are behind the political policies 
of publications. Certainly no other form of ad- 
vertising is so effective as the editorial and news 
columns of newspapers, and the voter who con- 
sciously or unconsciously permits what he reads 
to formulate his opinions for him is an easy vic- 
tim to this sort of propaganda. 

In one state the man who has held the 
dominant political position in the majority party 
for the last decade has owned outright or con- 
trolled every daily and nearly every weekly 

55 



56 Political Party Finances 

newspaper published anywhere in the state. In 
another state the owners of the leading news- 
papers have formed a political combination of 
their own by which they decide what candidates 
shall be nominated and elected. So powerful are 
they that independent candidates have little 
chance. Either by the participation of the own- 
ers directly in politics, or through the financial 
interests which back them, or because of arrange- 
ments with political leaders, many publications 
are controlled in their endorsement of policies 
and candidates by vastly different considerations 
than the individual merit of those policies or can- 
didates. 

Not only do such newspapers support certain 
political leaders at election time and throughout 
the intervening months as well, but the inde- 
pendent candidate who desires to present his 
point of view may find it impossible even to se- 
cure admission to their advertising columns. In 
a recent contest in the west, the candidate who 
was defeated for re-election to the United States 
Senate said that there were only half a dozen 
papers in the entire state which would print news 
concerning him and that he was obliged to pay 
prohibitive advertising rates in several of these. 
The other newspapers, he said, told him that their 



Political Party Finances 57 

advertising columns were sold out for the entire 
period of the campaign. 

In another case in a campaign in an eastern 
state, an organization very much interested in 
carrying a referendum spent large sums in ad- 
vertisements in newspapers. The owner of one 
newspaper in which this advertising was placed 
was desirous of defeating the referendum. As 
soon as he received the first advertisement, he 
telephoned to the leaders of the side with which 
he was personally in accord and stated that he 
was about to answer the advertisements and that 
his friends need have no concern about the cost. 
Thereupon he began a daily series of advertise- 
ments in answer to those for which he was ac- 
cepting large sums of money. At the close of the 
campaign he sent a receipted bill to his friends. 

Public Patronage by Party Leaders. — An- 
other matter which existing laws do not reach is 
the work given to a party organization by those 
whom it has been instrumental in placing on the 
public payroll. For instance the party in power 
may have secured the appointment of five thou- 
sand employees in a municipality. These em- 
ployees will devote their evenings, or half holi- 
days and Sundays, or may even go out of their 
offices and neglect their work to campaign for 
their party ticket. They canvass, they distribute 



58 Political Party Finances 

leaflets, they organize and get up meetings. 
What is to stop them? They may receive no 
money for their services. Like all other voters 
they are entitled to work for the ticket they de- 
sire to have win, but how far is it justifiable for 
them to take advantage of positions which they 
hold in order to advance party interests; how 
much of a handicap are they entitled to impose 
upon the independent candidate who has no such 
power of organization behind him? 

The Non-political Organization. — Expendi- 
tures by non-political organizations are also not 
reached by the present laws and these are often 
sufficient to materially influence an election. 
For instance a manufacturers' association may 
desire the election of a certain candidate. It may 
circulate thousands of letters and advertising 
pamphlets in his behalf. It may pay him for 
halls for meetings and give banquets in his honor. 
But no accounting is required of the association, 
even in those states which are most strict in regu- 
lating the expenditures which political commit- 
tees may make for their candidates. 



CHAPTER V 

SUGGESTED REMEDIES 

The Need of Public Funds. — The only ade- 
quate remedy for the evils in political party fi- 
nancing is by the realization of the fact that 
primaries and elections are not a personal and 
private matter but a public charge. 

Formerly candidates bore not only all their 
own expenses, but some of the cost incidental to 
primaries and elections, wealthy men thus com- 
ing into possession of great political power. Pri- 
maries and elections are now financed by the state, 
but many of the candidates' expenses have been 
assumed by the political parties, considerable po- 
litical control thereby passing into the hands of 
professional politicians and commercial interests. 
If all of the expenses, both for candidates and 
elections, were paid out of public funds, the pub- 
lic would have control of its own politics. 

Campaign funds have been objectionable not 
alone because of their size, but even more largely 
because of their source, the direct or implied ob- 

59 



60 Political Party Finances 

ligations which were thus established and the 
consequent influencing of governmental policies 
and the acts of federal, state or municipal offi- 
cials. The question therefore arises, whose elec- 
tion is it? Is the election the affair of the 
candidates, something from which they expect to 
profit and therefore something for which they 
should bear the expense? Is the election the af- 
fair of the party and should it pay the bills? Is 
it the affair of commercial institutions from which 
they will derive protection for their interests and 
for which they therefore should pay? Or is it 
the affair of the people, to be paid for and safe- 
guarded by them because it is vital to their wel- 
fare and the very life of their state and nation? 

Need of Reducing Expenses. — If election 
expenses are to be regarded as public and not 
personal affairs, three things should result. 
First, the present overwhelming costs should be 
reduced; second, a large part of the expenditure 
should be met directly from public funds ; and, 
third, the remainder should be paid by contribu- 
tions from as many persons as possible. 

How may the cost of elections be reduced? 
The average voter goes to a meeting, applauds 
the speakers, feels a great amount of enthusiasm 
and then goes home, considering that he has done 
his part in a campaign and never asking who paid 



Political Party Finances 61 

for the hall, out of whose pocket came the ex- 
penses of the speakers, who put up the funds for 
the elaborate decorations of flags and the expen- 
sive circulars which were distributed? If meet- 
ings were held in public buildings, such as town 
halls and schoolhouses, three direct results would 
be evident. The expense of hiring and decorat- 
ing a hall would be entirely done away with, no 
party or candidate would be put under obliga- 
tions to a public utility or a private individual 
for furnishing a hall, and the very fact that a 
building belonging to them was being used would 
make voters feel a greater responsibility to at- 
tend and to hear what was being said. Another 
means of reducing election expenses is by means 
of campaign pamphlets, which are now being cir- 
culated in some states. According to the cam- 
paign pamphlet law, the parties and candidates 
furnish information concerning their records and 
promises to state officials who have this matter 
printed and sent to the voters. Thus the cost 
of circularization of the voters is already being 
reduced. 

What practicable way is there for paying cam- 
paign expenses out of public funds? Colorado 
attempted a scheme of this kind, but the law 
passed by the state legislature was declared un- 
constitutional by the state supreme court. The 



62 Political Party Finances 

Colorado act provided that each political party- 
should be given a sum from the state treasury 
equal to twenty-five cents for every vote cast for 
it in the preceding gubernatorial elections. 
Twelve and one-half cents of each twenty-five 
cents was to go into the campaign funds of the 
county committee and twelve and one-half cents 
into the campaign fund of the state committee 
of the party. For instance if one hundred thou- 
sand votes were cast for a party candidate for 
governor, the party would receive twenty-five 
thousand dollars for its expenses in the next elec- 
tion. 

Every Citizen a Contributor.— How may 
campaign contributions be secured from large 
numbers of persons? Whenever people feel that 
a movement really belongs to them, that they are 
a part of it and that it is dependent upon them, 
they will give to its support., This has been 
proven by many national organizations of various 
kinds and by new political parties which have 
been organized and have subsisted for various 
lengths of time upon voluntary contributions 
from the masses of their membership. But it has 
also been made evident that there must be a real 
issue at stake, an issue in which the people feel 
a vital interest. 

Because of the issue which it presented, the 



Political Party Finances 63 

woman suffrage campaign was financed in a 
great measure through collections taken at meet- 
ings, and that method is open to any political 
organization. 

Even the present political parties have found 
that when they addressed a sufficiently strong ap- 
peal they were able to collect large sums from 
one-dollar gifts from their members. And that 
means also could be employed by any political 
group. 

No organization has as yet been able to finance 
itself solely by collections at meetings or by dol- 
lar memberships, and there is no reason why those 
who can afford to make larger contributions 
should not do so, if there is no obligation on the 
part of the individual or group receiving the gift 
to return the value in services which should be- 
long wholly to the public. 

When the mass of voters have the integrity of 
elections really at heart there will be no difficulty 
in financing politics through gifts from the peo- 
ple, none of whom will attempt to dictate policies 
or to exact favors because of their contributions. 

Then Americans will have realized the truth 
of the words of Henry Van Dyke, "There is a 
life that is worth living now, as it was worth liv- 
ing in former days, and that is the honest life. 
There is a battle that is worth fighting now, as it 



64 Political Party Finances 

was worth fighting then, and that is the battle of 
the rights of the people. To make our city and 
our state free in fact as well as in name ; to break 
the rings that strangle true liberty, and to keep 
them broken; to cleanse, so far as in our power 
lies, the fountain of our national life from politi- 
cal, commercial, and social corruptions; to teach 
our sons and daughters, by precept and example, 
the honor of serving such a country as America — 
that is work worthy of the finest manhood and 
womanhood." 



PART III 

DEFEATING THE VOTERS 
AT THE POLLS 



CHAPTER I 

THE VOTE AND THE BALLOT 

What Is a Vote? — A vote is the expression 
of opinion. It is of value only when there is an 
honest, efficient means for recording it. The 
chief problem of a democracy is the creation and 
maintenance of such means, so that for each citi- 
zen there shall be one vote ; and not less than one 
vote, because the citizen has been defrauded of 
his rights or is too indifferent to exercise them; 
nor more than one vote, because he has abused the 
most sacred gift of a free government and par- 
ticipated in trickery and corruption. 

Historical Development of Voting. — In 
early tribal and primitive governments the ballot 
was regarded as the natural concomitant of mem- 
bership in the state. It was a birthright, a sym- 
bol of dignity and distinction. On the day ap- 
pointed for elections those with the right to 
vote went as a matter ot course to the great open 
spaces set apart for the polls. There they signi- 
fied their choice of candidates by raising their 

67 



68 The Voter at the Polls 

hands or by calling out as they walked single file 
by the counters. Although there was not at that 
time so much indifference and neglect on the part 
of those entitled to vote as today, there were 
other forms of election evils, such as the great 
feasts to influence the masses of citizens, and pri- 
vate arrangements between political leaders by 
which the results were largely determined. 

With the growth of democratic ideals, the bal- 
lot came to be regarded as an inalienable right, 
such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 
On these grounds extensions of the suffrage have 
been granted in the United States. In their first 
constitutions, only two of the original states, 
North Carolina and Pennsylvania, conceded to 
all taxpayers the right to vote. Kentucky, com- 
ing into the union in 1791, and Vermont, in 1792, 
gave universal manhood suffrage, but it took the 
first thirty years of the next century to make that 
practice general. Many states at first barred 
Jews and Catholics, Baptists and those of other 
denominations. Atheists were prohibited from 
holding office. Religious professions were a 
necessary precedent to voting. For instance in 
Delaware, the voter was required to proclaim his 
belief in the Trinity and the divine inspiration of 
the Bible. Not only have these discriminations 
been abolished, but Indians, negroes, naturalized 



The Voter at the Polls 69 

foreign-born and women have been given the 
franchise. 

Some Old Penalties for Crime against the 
Ballot.— * That electoral abuses existed in the 
early days of the republic is evident from the 
penalties which the state constitutions imposed 
for such frauds. For bribery there were fines 
from ten to fifty pounds, or twice the amount of 
the bribe. Virginia and North Carolina nullified 
the election in which bribery was proved to have 
been used. New Jersey and Rhode Island pun- 
ished the offenders by disfranchisement and tak- 
ing away the right to hold office and to give evi- 
dence in a court of justice. Rhode Island re- 
quired officers to swear that they abhorred brib- 
ery, and also nullified an election if it was proved 
that any vote had been cast illegally. Fraud, re- 
peating and falsification of returns were all pro- 
vided for by penalties, Rhode Island being most 
severe with a provision for a fine of five pounds, 
forty stripes on the naked back or imprisonment 
in the jail or stocks. South Carolina and Georgia 
refused bail to such prisoners. 

Today voting has come to be generally looked 
upon not as a privilege of birth or property, or 
even a right so much as a duty or service to the 
state. It is apparent that some voters are wiser, 
better educated, more fit to formulate opinions 



70 The Voter at the Polls 

than others. And yet the purposes of govern- 
ment are not served by barring out these, rather, 
on the contrary, by aiding them in order to bring 
about an intelligent, loyal, honest electorate, 
which is the foundation of a democracy. 

Election Day Ceremonies. — Early political 
history points out many ceremonies incident to 
election day. Feasts were a frequent feature and 
some of the American colonies even provided for 
election day dinners out of the public funds. 
Prayers and election morning sermons were 
usual, these being supplanted later in American 
history by patriotic addresses. Many persons to- 
day urge a return to the custom of patriotic mass 
meetings and orations as a means of emphasizing 
the civic importance of the day. 

The Development of the Ballot.— The open 
ballot gave great opportunity for corruption, 
whether it was the Roman citizens herded into the 
sheep enclosures on the Campus Martius, calling 
out their choice of candidates, or the English lords 
gathered on great grassy fields to raise their 
hands, or the Pilgrim fathers dropping black 
and white beans into jars, or the southern planta- 
tion owners telling their votes to the sheriffs who 
called at their gates, or the Kentuckians arraying 
themselves in long lines to show their allegiance. 

Yet with all of its apparent evils there was 



The Voter at the Polls 71 

much opposition to giving up the open vote. In 
1839 John Randolph of Virginia said, "I scarcely 
believe that we have such a fool in all Virginia as 
even to mention the vote by ballot, and I do not 
hesitate to say that the adoption of the ballot 
would make any nation a nation of scoundrels, if 
it did not find them so." Although most of the 
other states had adopted the ballot by 1800, Ar- 
kansas was forty-six years later in giving up the 
viva voce vote. Missouri and Virginia kept it 
until the sixties and Kentucky until 1890. 

The introduction of the ballot did not establish 
the secrecy of elections, as was soon discovered. 
In its early days the voter who entered the elec- 
tion place was first enrolled. He then marked 
his ballot, and his choice was announced by the 
judges, whereupon the candidates or their rep- 
resentatives who were present rose and thanked 
him, and the spectators on that side applauded. 

It was easy for any observer to note how a 
man voted, since the political parties prepared 
their own ballots and printed them with vivid col- 
ors and flaming emblems so that they could be dis- 
tinguished by illiterate voters. By this same 
token those who bribed voters could accompany 
them to the ballot box and make certain that they 
voted as they had been paid to do. Various other 
abuses crept in. Political leaders who wanted for 



72 The Voter at the Polls 

some reason to betray one of their own ticket 
might print ballots with the usual colors and em- 
blems, but substituting another name for the one 
marked for defeat. The illiterate or careless 
voter would not detect the substitution and would 
cast the ballot as printed. Rival parties, too, 
would print their own names on ballots resem- 
bling those of the opposing party, so that the un- 
wary voter was constantly casting ballots which 
did not at all represent his opinion. 

The Australian Ballot. — The evils that have 
been mentioned led to the campaign for the Aus- 
tralian ballot, to put all printing and distribution 
of ballots into the hands of the state and especi- 
ally to insure secrecy in voting. Again there was 
much opposition. David B. Hill, governor of 
New York state, approved private polling booths, 
but in 1881 vetoed a bill to this intent because it 
also provided for state control of the printing and 
distribution of ballots. This he declared would 
give dangerous powers into the hands of partisan 
election officials and would tend to disfranchise 
illiterates who were in the habit of being guided 
by their party ballots. 

In Nebraska the Australian ballot was opposed 
in the late eighties on the openly stated grounds 
that a prohibition amendment was pending the 
next year and might be carried unless the liquor 



The Voter at the Polls 73 

advocates could make sure that the voters fol- 
lowed their instructions. 

The Australian ballot which was first adopted 
by Massachusetts in 1888, and is now in use in 
some form or another in every state, has the fol- 
lowing distinguishing features : The names of all 
candidates of. each political party of certain num- 
erical strength are printed on a separate ballot at 
public expense ; sample ballots may be circulated 
previous to election day, but the official ballot, the 
only one counted at the polls, is never given out 
beforehand, being distributed by sworn-in offi- 
cials to each citizen as he presents himself to vote ; 
ballots must be marked in voting booths provided 
for the purpose and in absolute secrecy. 

No state may be said to use the system entirely 
in its original form. The various modified forms 
may be divided into two groups, the party column 
ballot and the office column ballot. 

The party column ballot lists the names of the 
nominees under the name and usually the emblem 
of the party. This is supposed to be a great aid 
to the illiterate voter, who looks for the eagle or 
the sun and votes for all the names under it. 
Some of the parties vary their emblem with the 
state. The Prohibition party, for instance, uses 
a hatchet in Alabama, a house and yard in Dela- 
ware^ a phoenix in Kentucky, a rose in Ohio, an 



74 The Voter at the Polls 

anchor in New Hampshire, an armorial device in 
Michigan, a sun rising over the water in Indiana 
and Kansas and a fountain in New York. That 
that emblem does not always ensure the ballot of 
an ignorant voter being cast according to his 
wishes is evident from the story of a new voter 
in New York state who at a recent election had 
one desire only and that to vote wet. He looked 
for the wettest emblem he could find and voted 
the straight ticket listed under the fountain — the 
emblem of the Prohibition party in that state. 
Political leaders may generally be said to have 
two reasons for favoring the party column ticket. 
First, because with it ignorant voters make fewer 
mistakes in following out their instructions, and 
second, because it encourages voting the straight 
ticket. The leader of a citizens' good government 
organization in congratulating the members on 
the results of a recent campaign, said that it was 
an achievement worthy of a lifetime to have 
taught four hundred thousand voters to split their 
ticket. It is this disposition to vote against in- 
efficient or undesirable candidates on a ticket, 
which political bosses fight. 

The office column ballot, whch was the original 
form of the Australian ballot, lists the names of 
candidates under the offices to be filled with no 
distinguishing mark other than the name of the 



The Voter at the Polls 75 

party to which each belongs. Those who support 
this system value it as requiring a higher grade 
of intelligence in the voters, although the neces- 
sity of reading this ballot is evaded by political 
leaders who give stencils to illiterates. These 
stencils are laid flat on the ballots and have cut- 
out places indicating the names of the candi- 
dates which are to be marked. 

Some states modify this system still further 
and eliminate even the name of the party follow- 
ing that of the candidate. This is done for two 
purposes. In the West the intent is to make elec- 
tions non-partisan and to put the choice of can- 
didates on individual merit instead of party 
considerations. In some parts of the South the 
purpose is to make it more difficult for negro vot- 
ers to pick out the names of their party candi- 
dates. There are other devices also intended to 
confuse the negro voters, among them the use of 
a large number of ballot boxes at each polling 
place. One box will be for the county vote, an- 
other for the congressional, another for the state 
and still another for the federal, the boxes some- 
times being multiplied up to the number of 
twelve. If the voter puts his county ballot in the 
state box or his state ballot in the congressional 
box or his congressional ballot in the federal box, 



76 The Voter at the Polls 

he loses it. Since it requires some study to get the 
right ballot in the right box, undesirable voters, 
or those considered undesirable by the election 
officials may readily be disfranchised. 



CHAPTER II 

THE MACHINERY OF ELECTIONS 

When Elections are Held. — In all states na- 
tional elections for the choice of President and 
Vice-President are held on the Tuesday after 
the first Monday in November every four years. 
In most states elections of representatives in Con- 
gress take place on the same date every two years. 
Elections for state officials usually take place on 
the same date as national elections, although often 
in different years. There are some exceptions, 
including Maine, which has the state and congres- 
sional elections both in September; Arkansas 
which has its state election in September; Georgia 
in October ; and Louisiana in April. 

There is still further disposition to separate 
the municipal from state and national elections, 
so that questions of outside policies will not con- 
trol the choice of municipal candidates. In order 
to minimize still further the influence of party 
policies, some states separate the election of 
judges from federal or state elections. 

77 



78 The Voter at tie Polls 

Preceding every election due notification 
must always be given of the time and place, the 
offices to be filled, and any questions of policy to 
be submitted to the voters. 

When property owning was the principal 
qualification for voting, it was often the custom 
to have elections for the same officials on different 
days, so that a man might vote once in every dis- 
trict where he owned property. It was found 
that under this system political leaders moved 
their entire staffs from district to district. 
Speakers, literature, organizers, and checkbooks, 
especially checkbooks, made the rounds of the 
districts; and, since the results of the preceding 
days might be learned, political leaders would go 
to any lengths to swing the number of votes re- 
quired to carry an election. This has led to the 
present disposition to unite on one day all elec- 
tions in which the same candidates or policies are 
to be voted upon. 

Eligibility of Voters.— While it is customary 
to speak of the 'right to vote/ as a matter of 
practice suffrage is given not as a question of in- 
dividual right alone, but to those who are able to 
exercise it for the benefit of the state. Voting is 
the machinery set up by the state for carrying 
forward its own existence. The right to partici- 
pate in that machinery is no more inherent in 



The Voter at the Polls 79 

every resident regardless of ability, than is the 
right to serve as governor, as member of a legis- 
lature, or as commissioner of education. 

All states restrict the right to vote to citizens 
twenty-one years old. All states require the 
voter to have been a resident for a stated period, 
the time varying from six months to two years. 
Most states require voters to be citizens of the 
United States. A section of the middle western 
states stretching from the Canadian border to the 
gulf, originally permitted aliens who had not 
taken out their final citizenship papers to vote, 
but agitation for the abolition of this provision 
became general with the outbreak of the world 
war and, as a result, it has been practically done 
away with. Certain classes of persons are ex- 
cluded from the franchise, chief among them the 
insane, idiots, paupers and convicted criminals. 
Formerly New York excluded those convicted of 
betting on an election, Idaho and Mississippi 
those proved to have committed bigamy, while 
Virginia disfranchised duellists. 

Some states still require the payment of a poll 
tax. There is an increasing number of those 
which provide for a literacy test. Connecticut 
was the first to require voters to be able to read 
and write, establishing the provision in 1855. 
The first of the southern states to attempt to re- 



80 The Voter at the Polh 

duce its number of negro voters by a literacy test 
was Mississippi, which in 1890 set up the require- 
ment that a voter must be able to read the state 
constitution or understand it when read by an 
election officer. South Carolina made a similar 
ruling five years later, excepting, however, those 
who own at least $300 worth of property. Sev- 
eral other southern states exempted from the lit- 
eracy test those who were voters in 1867, when 
the negroes were still disfranchised, the descend- 
ants of those who were voters in 1867, and those 
who served in the army and navy during the 
Civil War. Such exceptions, which operated in 
the favor of white voters who were illiterate, led 
to considerable controversy in other parts of the 
country and the provision relating to voters of 
1867, termed the Grandfather clause, was in 1915 
declared unconstitutional by the United States 
Supreme Court. 

Election Officials. — Election commissioners, 
or county and city clerks, are required to provide 
requisites for elections. It is their duty to see 
that the selected buildings are open and ready 
for polls, that the registration or enrollment 
books for the district, ballot boxes, printed bal- 
lots, pencils, pens, ink and other supplies are on 
hand. At each polling place there is a corps of 
election judges or inspectors, poll clerks, or 



The Voter at the Polls 81 

counters, and ballot clerks. Most of these offi- 
cials secure their appointment through the in- 
fluence of district political party leaders and as 
such may naturally be expected to favor the for- 
tunes of the particular party through which they 
have secured their appointment. In addition 
each party is entitled to one or more watchers, 
or challengers, to protect their party's interests. 
There is also a policeman to see that electioneer- 
ing is not carried on within a certain number of 
feet of the polling place, that order is maintained, 
and that the ordinary rules of election procedure 
are obeyed. 

Election officials are paid for their work by 
the government, since they are responsible for the 
actual conduct of elections. Party watchers or 
challengers are supposed to be volunteers. Their 
work is to prevent dishonesty, to watch for fraud 
and to challenge 'when they detect it, to see that 
the attention of the precinct judges is called to 
any such matter, and in case of an unsatisfactory 
decision from them, to carry the matter to the 
election commissioners or the courts. The citizen 
who is interested primarily in honest elections 
may not find it easy to obtain a watcher's certifi- 
cate from one of the dominant parties, but the 
minority parties, certain good citizenship organi- 
zations and those who are interested in pending 



82 The Voter at the Polls 

referenda welcome such assistance and are glad 
to grant certificates even though the citizen may 
not be directly allied with them. 

Importance of Election Watchers. — The 
party watcher has a task the importance of which 
cannot be too much stressed. There could never 
be a corrupt election if honest citizens went as 
watchers to every polling place and stayed there 
the entire day. If the polls open at six o'clock 
it is no good to arrive at a quarter after six. 
Enough ballots may be put into the box by that 
time to overturn the entire election. If there is 
no one to substitute for him, the watcher should 
not leave the polls for luncheon or dinner. In his 
absence enough ballots may be destroyed to de- 
termine the outcome. If the count proceeds all 
night, and the watcher leaves one minute before 
it is concluded, the figures entered in ink, the 
boxes sealed and given into the custody of the po- 
lice guard, he might as well have stayed away en- 
tirely. 

Due partly to the violence which has attended 
elections in the past and the unpleasant character 
of many of the polling places, citizens of the so- 
called 'better class' have been reluctant to under- 
take the work of election officials and watchers. 
The last few years have witnessed an improve- 
ment both in the character of the polls and the or- 



The Voter at the Polls 83 

der which is maintained there; and the granting 
of suffrage to women has made necessary still 
further reforms. As a result, today there is less 
excuse for shirking this duty and every reason 
for all good citizens to feel that it is their particu- 
lar responsibility. 

Registration.— The first difficulty in insuring 
an honest election comes with the registration of 
the voters. In the United States the custom has 
been to require personal registration, that is, that 
every voter shall come on stated days before the 
election officials, sign his name, give his address 
and age, and answer a few other simple questions 
which will help to identify him when he comes 
later to cast his vote and to prevent a dishonest 
person from claiming his registration and voting 
in his stead. Some states have elaborated upon 
these requirements and demand that a personal 
description of the registrant be entered on the 
books, giving the color of hair and eyes, heighth 
and any other personal characteristics which 
would make identification more certain. 

Especially in the country districts where per- 
sonal registration makes a long journey neces- 
sary there is an increasing disposition to admit 
registration by proxy or by mail. Latterly some 
states have passed laws permitting traveling men 
or others necessarily absent from home, or those 



84 The Voter at the Polls 

who are ill, to send their registration by mail. 
This system has been objected to on the ground 
that lack of personal identification by watchers 
gives greater opportunity for dishonest election 
officials to "pad the rolls" with names of persons 
who have not registered and will not vote, but 
whose names are thus at the disposal of false vot- 
ers on election day. 

Some states require registration to be renewed 
every year or two by the voters. Others follow 
the practice of "once on always on." In states 
where this permanent registration exists, names 
of men who have moved away or who are deceased 
may be carried for years on the books in order 
that substitutes may be voted in their place on 
election day. In close elections political party 
leaders have even been known to make use of this 
method by copying into the registration books 
lists of names from telephone or city directories. 

There is a constant protest against undue in- 
convenience to the voters concerning registration. 
It is difficult, however, to make registration easy 
for the voters and at the same time to safeguard 
it properly as a means of tabulating honest vot- 
ing lists. 



CHAPTER III 

TYPES OF ELECTION FRAUD 

Fraud. — -If the representatives of the two par- 
ties on the election boards are in collusion no law 
can insure honest elections. This is the real dif- 
ficulty underlying all election reform. A woman 
watcher tells of seeing not only the poll clerks, 
but the judges and watchers of both parties in 
one precinct working in unison for the election 
of five of the ten candidates for city commission- 
ers. Although election literature is prohibited in 
all polling places, the walls of this particular one 
were covered with posters bearing the five chosen 
names. A -man sat in the center of the polling 
place all day wearing on his coat a ribbon with 
the names of these five candidates and this woman 
watcher actually saw him give money to voters 
as they entered. While the openness with which 
this particular fraud was carried on may be un- 
usual, there is clear evidence of trickery in nearly 
every election. The time has come for American 
voters to open their eyes to the ways by which their 

85 



86 The Voter at the Polls 

will is constantly nullified and control over them 
is maintained by political leaders. The frauds 
which are practised may be listed under three 
heads, according as they are accomplished through 
force, bribery, or trickery. 

Frauds by Force. — It has already been said 
that frauds by force are less prevalent today 
than they have been in the past. And yet within 
the last few years 'thugs' from outside the state 
were imported to swing a Pennsylvania election. 
They took possession of the polls, voted in place 
of the legally qualified voters, and by violence in- 
timidated all who tried to stop them. Owners of 
large estates, employers of great numbers of 
men and political leaders in control of patronage 
still march up to the polls the men under them 
to vote according to their instructions. 

Fraud by Bribery.— The buying and selling 
of votes is the most prevalent and widely known 
known method of defeating the will of the ma- 
jority. There are precincts where money is 
openly paid to the voters by political leaders. 
Recently in Chicago a ballot when unfolded by 
the election counters revealed a five-dollar bill 
which had been handed to the voter and which he 
had evidently forgotten to remove. In some sec- 
tions it is the habit for political leaders working 
at the polls to distribute checks of various kinds; 



The Voter at the Polls 87 

or in the south, chestnuts, which are redeemed by 
the party cashier for two or five or ten dollars — 
whatever rate has been agreed upon as the price 
to be paid each voter in that section. Political 
leaders can tell almost to a dollar the sum needed 
to buy enough votes to swing the election of a 
road commissioner, or a mayor, or whatever the 
official may be. In one small city this system 
was recently imperiled by a bitter controversy 
between the two dominant parties, in which the 
price of votes was run up so high that the leaders 
finally came together and made an agreement to 
buy no more votes. Whereupon the men who had 
been in the habit of selling their votes nominated 
a ticket of their own and elected it. The political 
leaders immediately restored the old system. 

Fraud by Trickery.— There are many tricks 
by which political leaders juggle elections. One 
of the most common is repeating. Men are em- 
ployed to vote as many times as they can in each 
precinct. For this purpose the registration lists 
are padded by the officials with names which will 
not be claimed by actual voters. Lists of these 
fictitious names are given to the repeaters, who 
may then vote in place of a man who has moved 
away, or died, or gone on a visit to Maine or Cali- 
fornia. Sometimes the repeater may claim the 
name of a man who intends to vote later in the 



88 The Voter at the Polls 

day. In one such case the election officials threat- 
ened to throw the rightful voter out of the polls if 
he did not go away quietly and when he continued 
to assert his right to vote, they did actually put 
him out into the street. In a recent investigation 
in Kansas City one man confessed to having 
voted thirty-seven times at one election and to 
knowing forty other men who voted as many 
times. 

Colonizing is another fraud. Some states re- 
quire registration many months preceding elec- 
tions. Others accept a very brief registration, or 
permit men who move from one district to an- 
other to change their registration up to a few days 
preceding election. Such states open the way to 
bringing in men from outside, who register, vote 
in large numbers and are gone within a few days. 
It has even been established that in states close to 
the Canadian border where the registration days 
have been close to election, party leaders have 
brought over 'colonies' of Canadians to vote. 

The giving of misinformation is a very easy 
way to trick voters. A citizen may be told that 
he cannot vote at a certain precinct and unless 
he protests his rights, he may be induced to go 
away and not vote at all, thus leaving his regis- 
tration to T>e used by some one else. Voters are 
frequently advised that they are not permitted to 



The Voter at the Polls 89 

split the ticket, or are warned that if they do 
attempt it they will make such mistakes that their 
ballot will certainly be thrown out. Watchers 
have been put out of polling places for advising 
voters that it was permissable to split party tick- 
ets, thus leaving the field to those who were ad- 
vising that it was prohibited. One woman in 
Pennsylvania has told how an election official to 
whom she appealed for information so that she 
might vote against one party, told her to "scratch 
it by making a cross under its emblem." The 
woman did as she was told, thereby casting a 
straight vote for the party she wished to defeat. 

Some states permit illiterate voters to receive 
aid in casting their votes from one representative 
of each of the two dominant parties. Where 
these representatives are in collusion, the will of 
the voter may be frustrated, for they have been 
known to mark the ballot in an entirely opposite 
way from the one indicated by the voter. 

So it is that ballots may be perverted before 
they are cast. But there are also ways of cheat- 
ing honest, informed citizens who think that once 
their ballots are properly deposited in the box 
they can go home sure that their duty is 
well performed. Ballots have been stolen from 
boxes. In a recent New York City election one 
large bundle of voted ballots properly marked 



90 The Voter at the Polls 

with the precinct in which they were cast was 
picked up from a nearby gutter. A Pennsyl- 
vania woman watcher has reported the use of such 
small boxes that ballots overflowed to the floor, 
were opened and destroyed. And a woman 
watcher in another state who overheard plans 
laid to destroy a certain number of ballots dur- 
ing the count literally sat upon them until an- 
other woman could get help to protect them. 

Dishonest officials may easily cheat while the 
ballots are being handled in the count. It is 
easy to make a little tear in a ballot as it is being 
opened, any such torn ballots being thrown out. 
'Shortpencilling' is resorted to by holding in the 
clenched fist a very short pencil with the lead 
downward. By this means marks may be made 
which deface a ballot and result in its being 
thrown out. Or a straight ticket may be split in 
this wise. In some states the law permits a voter 
to make a check under the emblem of his party 
and then if he desires to mark the names of two 
or three candidates on the opposing ticket, his 
ballot is counted as being cast for all the candi- 
dates under the emblem he has marked except 
those for whom he has voted on the opposing 
ticket. In such states the dishonest counter who 
'shortpencils/ makes checks on ballots and thus 
increases the votes for certain candidates in whom 
he is particularly interested. 



CHAPTER IV 

SOME SUGGESTED REMEDIES 

Compulsory Voting. — A number of foreign 
countries are now having their registration lists 
of all those eligible to vote made up by the gov- 
ernment itself, thus doing away with the inde- 
pendent registration by voters themselves. 
Along with this plan usually proceeds compul- 
sory voting. That means that all those whose 
names are on the lists are required to vote, unless 
they can prove unavoidable absence or illness. 
In this country where compulsory voting has been 
agitated, it has been opposed as an infringement 
of personal liberty and it has been said that those 
who are too indifferent to vote would not have 
any opinion on public affairs worth recording. 
On the other hand those with experience with the 
system urge that it does secure the votes of many 
good citizens who have not previously been awake 
to their duty to the state. 

Changes in the Form of the Ballot. — The 
abolition of the party emblem on ballots is urged 

91 



92 The Voter at the Polls 

as a means of requiring voters to exercise more 
intelligence and thought in picking out candi- 
dates. It is also argued that so long as voters 
by making a single mark can cast a ballot for their 
straight party ticket, many will do this to save 
themselves trouble, whereas if they are required 
to mark each name separately they will be more 
likely to consider the merits of candidates on op- 
posing tickets. 

The length of the average ballot also conspires 
to the casting of a straight vote by the citizen 
who has not time enough alloted to him to mark 
each name separately. The remedy suggested 
for this is the short ballot already in use in some 
states. On the short ballot there appear only the 
names of the more important candidates, so that 
this change operates not only to save time for the 
voter but to center upon the leading officials re- 
sponsibility for the appointment of minor officials 
now usually chosen by election. 

Proportional Representation. — -To make ef- 
fective the will of the majority proportional rep- 
resentation is now used in most European coun- 
tries and in some parts of the United States. 
Under our present scheme of elections one of sev- 
eral candidates who himself receives less than a 
majority of all the votes cast at the election may 
be declared the victor. Also the control of po- 



The Voter at the Polls 93 

litical leaders is a strong factor in the choice of 
nominees in the primaries and candidates at the 
elections. Proportional Representation is said to 
insure both the triumph of the candidates with 
an actual majority of votes and to make more 
likely the election of independents. There are 
various modifications of proportional representa- 
tion in use, all of which, however, depend upon 
the preferential ballot. On the preferential bal- 
lot the voter records not only his first, but his sec- 
ond, or third choice, in fact as many choices as he 
likes. When the ballots are counted, if the can- 
didate named as first choice has no chance of win- 
ning a majority, the vote is transferred to the sec- 
ond choice. If the candidate named as second 
choice has no chance of winning, the vote is trans- 
ferred to third choice and so on. 

The Voting Machine.— Two remedies are 
advanced to do away with trickery in counting. 
One is the use of voting machines which are not 
so easy of manipulation by dishonest officials as 
are paper ballots, and which automatically regis- 
ter totals so that the returns are immediately 
known and there can be no withholding of returns 
from one district to falsify them according to the 
need disclosed by the results in other districts. 
The other remedy is the public counting of votes, 
that is the sending of the sealed ballot boxes to 



94 The Voter at the Polls 

one central place where the counting may be 
watched by all interested citizens. 

Some Additional Changes. — There is some- 
thing certainly wrong with the electoral system 
when only fifteen per cent, of those entitled to 
vote go to the polls as was the case recently in one 
state. There are some very apparent ways of be- 
ginning the reform. So long as voters are penal- 
ized by being obliged to wait in line outside for 
an hour or two, sometimes in the pouring rain, 
and then to hold their noses against the smells 
within for another fifteen minutes before they 
can deposit their ballots, there is bound to be 
some disinclination to vote. Better polling 
places, the use of churches and schools instead of 
stables and shops, would remedy that. 

More vital, of course, are the more or less hid- 
den frauds whose well known practise has dis- 
couraged individual voters and made them feel 
that their efforts were worthless. Legal means 
have been suggested to better these conditions. 
But the only really efficacious way of dealing with 
the situation is for honest citizens who desire hon- 
est elections to go to the polls as election officials 
and watchers. One such person to each precinct 
would quickly end the corruption of elections. 



PART IV 

THE STATE LEGISLATURE AND 

ITS WORK UNDER THE PARTY 

SYSTEM 



CHAPTER I 

THE LEGISLATURE AND ITS POWERS 

The State and the Citizen. — In our dual sys- 
tem of governing the functions and powers of 
legislative authority are divided between Con- 
gress and the respective state legislatures. It is, 
however, the state authority that touches most 
closely the life and immediate interests of the 
citizen. Practically all the laws that regulate the 
conditions under which we live, work, carry on 
business, acquire our education, and derive our 
amusements are the product of the state legisla- 
ture, or of subordinate bodies that derive their 
authority from that source. It prescribes the 
qualifications of the physician who tends us dur- 
ing illness. It provides the schools that we at- 
tend and the boards of health which regulate the 
conditions under which we attend them. It deter- 
mines the nature of the transportation that car- 
ries us to and from business in cities. It places 
restrictions on various businesses and professions. 
It touches us in one way or another in almost 

97 



98 The State Legislature 

every transaction that we make involving another 
person. And directly or indirectly it collects 
from us the money with which it pays for its great 
and varied activities. It is, therefore, a body in 
which we should have a great personal interest, 
and with whose acts we should be familiar. 

Divisions of the Legislature. — In every state 
there are two divisions of the legislature, called 
houses. This has not always been so. The first 
legislature in this country, that of Virginia, in 
1619 had two houses; but of the original thirteen 
colonies, both Georgia and Pennsylvania had one 
house only. Vermont at first had one house, not 
adding the second until 1836. The purpose of 
the two houses, or bicameral system as it is called, 
is to provide against hasty and unconsidered ac- 
tion. This method of checks and balances, which 
is a feature of the entire American system of 
government, has beeen subject to criticism, and in 
recent years there has been agitation, especially 
in *the western states, for a single-chambered leg- 
islature. 

In each state the upper house is called the sen- 
ate. This is regarded as the more dignified of 
the two bodies, and membership in it is consid- 
ered superior to that in the lower house. The 
names given to the lower house vary in different 
states. Some call it the house of representatives, 



The State Legislature 99 

or house of delegates. In others it is known 
merely as the house, or the assembly. Two states, 
Massachusetts and New Hampshire, retain the 
name applied in colonial days, general court. 

Legislative Powers.— In the wide latitude of 
its powers the legislature is the most important 
branch of the state government. It may act upon 
any matter not prohibited ta it by the state con- 
stitution, the federal constitution and laws, acts 
of Congress, and United States treaties. 

The scope of its activities includes the grant- 
ing of charters to municipalities and the settle- 
ment of boundaries of counties, cities, towns and 
villages; the granting of charters to railroads, 
banks, educational and benevolent institutions, 
both public and private ; the regulation of taxes, 
licenses, and fees; the enactment of all criminal 
laws, including the punishment for treason, mur- 
der, arson, stealing, bribery, forgery, kidnapping, 
fraud, perjury; conditions for the ownership, 
sale, and use of all land, including mortgages 
and deeds ; provision for the making of wills, set- 
tlement of estates of bankrupts and deceased ; en- 
actment of laws controlling education, marriage 
and divorce, health restrictions, elections and vot- 
ing; methods of transportation for railroads and 
boats, methods of communication such as the 
telegraph and telephone; and contracts of trade, 



100 The State Legislature 

business and industry, including farming, fishing, 
mining, manufacturing and trading. 

These are by no means all of the powers dele- 
gated to the legislature. A few instances of the 
proceedings of legislatures will indicate the tre- 
menduous right of dictation over municipal af- 
fairs accorded to it. Not long ago the people of 
Philadelphia were obliged by the state legislature 
to build a city hall which cost $20,000,000. The 
Ohio legislature voted a soldiers' monument 
which was built in Cleveland at the cost of $300,- 
000. When New York City wanted to build its 
elevated railway system it was compelled to ask 
permission of the state legislature and the grant 
was made with the provision that a state commis- 
sion have authority and supervision over the 
work. When Chicago wanted to prescribe the 
width of wagon tires which could be used on its 
own streets, it had first to secure the consent of 
the Illinois legislature. 

The city of Buffalo in New York state has had 
a controversy extending over a considerable pe- 
riod of years as to whether it should continue the 
municipal government by a mayor and board of 
aldermen, or adopt the commission form of gov- 
ernment. Since the change affected the provi- 
sions in the city charter, it was necessary when a 
majority of the voters had decided upon the com- 



The State Legislature 101 

mission form of government, to appeal to the 
legislature for a new charter. A spirited contest 
ensued before representatives from other coun- 
ties would grant the request. Now that the com- 
mission form of government has been in opera- 
tion in Buffalo for several years, its advocates 
have a constant battle against members of the 
legislature from other counties who desire to re- 
store the old system. 

There is an increasing sentiment in favor of 
curtailing the powers of the legislature, which has 
resulted in some states in amending the constitu- 
tion in such a way as to limit the legislative 
authority. Some have given to the people the 
power of direct legislation for themselves through 
the initiative, which enables the voters to propose 
a law to the legislature; and the referendum, 
which enables the voters to ballot upon a law 
which they have demanded be referred to them. 

Others have sought to regulate the legislature 
by limiting the length of its session, in order to 
prevent prolonged debate and delay in deciding 
important questions. This limitation has been 
evaded by interpreting the constitution to mean 
that the members shall be paid for the prescribed 
time only, but that if important business is still 
to be transacted they may remain in session at 
their discretion; or by still other devices. 



CHAPTER II 

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE LEGISLATURE 

The Time of Legislative Sessions. — Each 
state constitution prescribes the time at which the 
regular session of the legislature shall take place 
and in addition the governor of the state is giyen 
the right to call an extraordinary session in the 
event of an emergency. Alabama has a quad- 
rennial session; New York, New Jersey, Massa- 
chusetts, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Geor- 
gia have annual sessions. Other state legislatures 
meet biennially. 

Length of Terms. — Louisiana, Mississippi 
and Alabama elect the members of the lower 
house for terms of four years, Massachusetts, 
New Jersey and New York for terms of one year, 
and all other states for two years. New Jersey 
elects senators for a period of one year ; Alabama, 
California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Illi- 
nois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisi- 
ana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, 
Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, 

102 



The State Legislature 103 

Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, 
Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, 
Wisconsin, and Wyoming, for four years; and 
Arkansas, Arizona, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, 
Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nebraska, 
New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, 
Ohio, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, 
and Vermont, for two years. 

Apportionment-— The size of the legislature 
varies in the different states. The lower house is 
always the larger. Sometimes the proportion is 
one to two as in Delaware, where there are seven- 
teen senators and thirty-five assemblymen. 
More often the ratio is one to three. In the New 
England states the lower houses are of still 
greater size. New Hampshire has over four hun- 
dred assemblymen to twenty-four senators ; Con- 
necticut two hundred and fifty-eight assembly- 
men to thirty-five senators; Vermont two hun- 
dred and forty-six assemblymen to thirty sena- 
tors; Massachusetts two hundred and forty as- 
semblymen to forty senators. 

The intent in having such large assemblies is 
to give the most democratic representation pos- 
sible. Sometimes this results in the opposite ef- 
fect. Connecticut for instance gives representa- 
tion to each town, so that one thousand persons 
in one community may have two members in the 



104 The State Legislature 

legislature and one hundred thousand persons in 
another community will also have just two mem- 
bers in the legislature. 

The more usual method of apportioning mem- 
bers is to divide the voters into groups of fairly 
equal size, allowing one representative for each 
unit of the voters. Some of the states have found 
it necessary to set up additional safeguards to 
this method. For instance New York State, 
with the tremendous population in the great city 
of New York, attempts to protect its rural voters 
by a law which declares that no one county in the 
state may have a greater number of representa- 
tives than one-third of the total number. 

Method of Election.— -However the appor- 
tionment varies, the general scheme of elections 
is the same, with each small assembly district or 
town choosing one representative to the lower 
house and several districts or towns combining 
to elect a senator to the upper house. 

The lines of districts are usually changed by 
the election officials when the number of voters 
in them becomes so large as to be out of propor- 
tion to the number of voters in the other dis- 
tricts. Thus one district may be made into two, 
or several districts may be changed so as to add 
one or two. When this process is done unfairly 
it is called gerrymandering. By gerrymander- 



The State Legislature 105 

ing streets on which voters of one political party 
live may be assigned to another district, thus 
leaving control of the first district in the hands 
of the opposing political party. A little colony 
of voters of one party in a country district may 
be changed over to another district, not only with 
this result, but also making it necessary for them 
to travel miles to reach the polling place, often 
discouraging them from voting at all. Some- 
times districts are gerrymandered so that two 
members of the legislature from one party are 
placed in the same district, thus making it neces- 
sary for one to withdraw at the next election or 
to move his residence to another district where 
he will not be so sure of re-election. Sometimes 
the move is in favor of two men who live in the 
same district, a division making it possible for 
both to be elected to the legislature. In close 
elections where the two dominant political par- 
ties are struggling for supremacy gerrymander- 
ing in a very few districts may decide the victory 
for an entire state. 

The Members of the Legislature. ^-In the 
East political party leaders in picking candi- 
dates have helped to create the popular belief that 
lawyers are especially equipped for legislative 
work. The pressure of business concerns that 
desire to have their special interests watched dur- 



106 The State Legislature 

ing legislative sessions has also contributed to tHe 
selection of lawyers, who are by the nature of 
their regular occupations associated with rail- 
roads and manufacturing concerns and commer- 
cial institutions of all kinds. In the West, where 
there is more independence of party control, 
farmers and business men, as well as professional 
men, are more generally elected to legislatures. 

The individual voter who assumes the full re- 
sponsibility of citizenship must undertake to see 
that his representative does actually represent 
him and not a financial interest. To do this he 
must have personal knowledge of all the candi- 
dates, their qualifications, their supporters and 
their platforms. 

Salaries of Legislators. — In every state the 
salaries of senators and members of the lower 
house is the same, but the amounts vary greatly 
in the various states. Some pay three dollars a 
day, a sum which legislators say does not pay 
their expenses at the state capitol. South Caro- 
lina and New Hampshire pay $200 a session, 
while New York and Pennsylvania pay $1,500 a 
year. Small salaries mean that competent men 
must make sacrifices in order to serve their states, 
while dishonest men are subjected to the con- 
stant temptation to supplement their salaries by 
accepting money for serving special interests. 



CHAPTER III 

THE ORGANIZATION OF THE LEGISLATURE 

The Election of Officers. — Every legislature 
meets in the state capitol. Immediately upon the 
convening of the new session each house proceeds 
separately to organize for its work. In states 
where there is a lieutenant-governor that official 
is designated by the constitution as the presiding 
officer of the senate. In other states the presid- 
ing officer or president, as he is usually called, is 
elected by the senate from its own membership. 

The house elects its own presiding officer, or 
speaker, as he is ordinarily called. While tech- 
nically it is true that each house elects the pre- 
siding officer, actually he is chosen in a previous 
caucus or secret meeting of the legislators of the 
political party which has a majority of members 
in the house. When the house has been convened 
for organization, a leading member of the party 
caucus will rise and nominate the choice of the 
caucus. It is usual for the minority party to 
make a nomination from their ranks, also chosen 

107 



108 The State Legislature 

in caucus. The voting by the house is a mere 
matter of form, since the minority caucus nomi- 
nee is always defeated and the majority nominee 
always elected. It is considered courteous for 
the minority, after the defeat of its candidate, to 
withdraw any open opposition to the election of 
the majority nominee. In some cases of extreme 
bitterness, however, the minority party has been 
known by long speeches to delay the election until 
the people of the state have learned of the fight 
and the reasons for making it. 

The position of presiding officer carries with 
it great power. Not only does the presiding offi- 
cer have important appointments to make, but 
he can control debate to a large extent. He has 
an important part in determining the decisions 
of the house by recognizing some men and re- 
fusing to recognize others who desire to speak; 
also by allowing motions which block free and 
independent discussion or even by shutting off 
speeches entirely. 

As soon as the presiding officer has been 
chosen, the house selects its business organization, 
clerk, sergeant-at-arms, door-keepers, messen- 
gers and other minor officials. 

The Permanent Committees. — When that is 
accomplished the presiding officer makes the an- 
nouncement of the committee memberships, the 



The State Legislature 109 

most important of which are those on finance, cor- 
porations, municipalities, judiciary, appropria- 
tions, elections, education, labor, manufacturers, 
agriculture, and railroads. Membership on these 
committees is, of course, especially desirable, and 
it is likewise decided in caucus. The party having 
the majority in the house will take the larger 
proportion of committee places, the smaller num- 
ber going to the minority. Those legislators who 
have been re-elected to office ordinarily have the 
choicest places, and the new men receive the less 
desirable appointments. 

Unofficial Appointments — These are the of- 
ficial appointments of the house, but in addition 
there are unofficial ones which carry with them 
much power. Each caucus chooses a floor leader 
and usually a steering committee. These men 
have much the same kind of control as that of 
the presiding officer. They manage floor tactics, 
and during a close debate are the ones recognized 
by the presiding officer and permitted to make 
motions. They decide to a large degree in what 
order bills shall come up and what the party stand 
upon them will be. They direct the fight which 
is always conducted against any member who op- 
poses the control of the party leaders. 

In all of these appointments made by the cau- 
cus it is customary for the party leaders to take 



110 The State Legislature 

a part. It is not uncommon for the state political 
party chairman and others high in party councils 
to attend a caucus and to declare themselves con- 
cerning appointments or even with regard to 
pending legislation, matters which are popularly 
supposed to be managed entirely by the members 
of the legislature. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE LEGISLATIVE PROCESS 

The Introduction of Bills. — The passage of 
bills is the most important duty of the legislature 
and here the power of committees is strongly felt. 
A bill may be the result of the individual obser- 
vation of a legislator, it may represent the 
thought of a community or an organization of 
citizens interested in the common good, or it may 
be instigated by some private corporation which 
expects personal gain thereby. Whether it is 
actually drafted by a legislator or by some in- 
terested outside group, it must be introduced by 
a legislator and thereafter is known by his name. 
It may be brought forward in both houses on the 
same day; or, in controversial cases, it may be 
introduced at first only into one house, the one in 
which it will receive most support, in order that 
its friends may control it. 

The Bill in Committee. — After the bill has 
been read in the house, it is referred to the com- 
mittee having general jurisdiction over matters 

111 



112 The State Legislature 

to which it pertains. Since the speaker has the 
authority to refer the bill, its friends usually con- 
sult him first, endeavoring to influence him to 
refer it to a committee which will act favorably, 
rather than one which is known to be hostile to it. 
Here may come the first clash. The speaker may 
yield to the entreaties of friends of the bill, while 
the opponents are sure to protest over the refer- 
ence of the bill and to urge reasons why it should 
be sent to another committee. Here may come 
a test vote on the bill, for the opposition may 
prove itself so strong that the speaker will feel 
obliged to ask the house to sustain or overthrow 
his ruling. 

Committees are often referred to as 'grave- 
yards of legislative hopes.' In the secrecy of 
executive sessions a committee discusses a bill and 
determines whether or not it shall ever again see 
the light of day. It may pigeonhole the bill and 
never report it; although under certain condi- 
tions the house may by a majority vote order the 
bill from committee. The committee may decide 
to hold hearings on the bill or it may refuse to 
grant hearings. It may report the bill with a 
recommendation for its rejection or its accept- 
ance. When the bill is returned to the house, it 
goes to the calendar, has a second reading, is sub- 
ject to general discussion and amendment, and 



The State Legislature 118 

then proceeds to a third reading and passage or 
defeat. 

The Power of the Opposition. — Through all 
of these steps the opponents and proponents of a 
bill may have a running fight. The opponents 
have several weapons to use. They may try to 
talk a bill down, delaying the proceedings of the 
house to such a degree that other legislation is 
imperiled and the particular bill may be dropped 
for a time or laid on the table temporarily. A 
motion to lay the bill on the table is another 
means of defeating it ; and, on such a motion, the 
opponents are sure to be able to get the votes of 
weak members who can be swayed to voting with 
them on a technicality of this kind, when they 
would not dare vote openly against the bill itself. 
The opposition is certain also to suggest amend- 
ments, which would tend to nullify or alter the 
original intent of the bill. For every one of these 
moves the friends of the bill must be prepared. 
Often a bill has been lost when there were enough 
votes to insure its passage, solely because its 
friends were not alert to the meaning of techni- 
calities. 

In one legislature in which there was a clear 
majority for a bill, the chairman of the commit- 
tee to which it was entrusted did not realize the 
importance of making sure of the attendance of 



114 The State Legislature 

all friendly committee members at the meeting 
at which it was to be considered. As a result the 
enemies of the bill on the committee voted by a 
majority of one to report it unfavorably. The 
bill thus went to the house with an undeserved 
handicap. Throughout the entire debate on the 
bill, lasting for a week, the enemies were con- 
stantly interposing parliamentary objections 
which made friends of the bill lose the floor for 
discussion and motions, adjournments come at 
most unfortunate times and a final week-end re- 
cess possible. The week-end was fatal to the bill. 
Thousands of dollars were spent sending tele- 
grams and delegations to the legislators in their 
homes and from a majority of fifteen in its favor, 
the bill slipped back to defeat by four votes; 
There are cases of unwise proposals where such 
a delay might work to the advantage of the peo- 
ple, but in this case popular sentiment was 
strongly in favor of the bill, and its defeat was 
a sore blow to public welfare. 

Technical Motions,*— In order that friends 
of a bill may not be mistakenly led to voting on 
the wrong side in moot questions, it is usually 
arranged among the friends of the bill that one 
man whose support is certain and whose name 
comes well up to the top of the alphabet will give 
the signal. The leaders for the bill will gather 



The State Legislature 115 

at his seat for conference when a vote is to be 
taken and as he votes so all friends of the bill are 
expected to do. In one bitter legislative fight 
recently, the speaker ordered all members into 
their seats. As a consequence the first seven 
votes of friends of the bill were scattered, none 
of these particular members being certain of the 
parliamentary question involved. It was not 
until the name of the strongest supporter of the 
bill was reached that members were sure how 
they ought to vote and the spectators were 
amused at the promptness with which the A's and 
B's sprang to their feet and demanded to change 
their votes. 

One of the most unfair practices of legislators 
is to trade votes with each other in such instances 
as this. A man who desires to have his own bills 
advanced will agree to vote for another bill, pro- 
vided the friends of that bill will promise to give 
him a certain number of votes for his bills. In 
this way members have been known to secure ap- 
propriations and special favors for their districts 
which would never have been granted had they 
been considered on their merits. 

The Bill Before the Second House. — Once 
passed in one house, the bill goes to the other 
house for action. Here it may encounter honest 
opposition or competition, due to the desire of 



116 The State Legislature 

an individual member or of a majority of the 
house to be its originator. Deadlocks of this 
kind are not frequent, but they are by no means 
rare, and they point a lesson to the voter who has 
a keen interest in a certain bill to see that its 
friends in botli houses agree upon the tactics to 
be pursued. 

If a bill is amended in the second house, it is 
returned to the house where it originated for con- 
currence. If the amendments are refused by the 
first house, a conference committee is usually ap- 
pointed by the two houses to consider and recom- 
mend a compromise. A conference committee 
has greater power than any other, for its report 
is not subject to amendment and friends of a bill 
are thus often forced to accept very objectionable 
amendments or else lose a bill altogether. 

The Final Step. — After a bill has been passed 
it is sent to the governor of the state, whose sig- 
nature is required before the bill can become law, 
except in North Carolina. The governor may 
veto a bill, which then requires a majority, or a 
two-thirds or a three-fifths vote in both houses 
to be passed over his veto. 

Checks on Legislators. — In the belief that 
legislators have not been sufficiently guided by 
the wishes of their constituents and have either 
impeded bills or hurried through unwise legisla- 



The State Legislature 117 

tion, some states now require that all bills be in- 
troduced during a stated term at the opening of 
each session. At the conclusion of the appointed 
time a recess is declared and the members are 
expected to devote themselves to studying the bills 
and to hearing the wishes of their constituents 
with regard to them. At the expiration of the 
recess, they return to the capitol for a second 
limited period at which these bills and no others 
may be passed. 

All action by the legislature is recorded by the 
clerks or secretaries in the journal, and the jour- 
nal should always be open to voters who seek to 
know the exact attitude of their legislators on the 
questions submitted to them. 



CHAPTER V 

LEGISLATIVE ABUSES 

The Legislative Joker. — One of the evils 
arising in connection with the passage of bills is 
the introduction of what are termed "jokers." 
Perhaps an entire committee or an individual 
member of a committee or perhaps a legislator 
during discussion on the floor will add to a bill 
a phrase whose real meaning is not clear to the 
rest of the body. Or if clear to them, its purport 
may be concealed from the public until after the 
adjournment of the body. Such a phrase some- 
times renders a bill unconstitutional. Sometimes 
it constitutes a new ruling on a matter entirely 
foreign to the main bill. In any event months of 
delay must intervene before a new legislature can 
correct the bill. 

Committee Room Secrecy— Another abuse 
comes from the transaction of much of the busi- 
ness relating to bills in a committee room. Pri- 
vacy enshrouds the real backers and opponents of 

118 



The State Legislature 119 

bills, making it difficult for the public to deter- 
mine the exact issues involved. 

Bi-partisan Combinations. — One of the 
greatest evils arises from the fact that our politi- 
cal system is so organized that the entire respon- 
sibility for the failure or passage of a bill cannot 
be laid upon any one political group. On the 
surface there is much opposition between parties. 
Their representatives attack each other in public. 
As an actual fact bipartisan combinations are a 
very common thing. It is often arranged be- 
tween the leaders of the parties that each will 
give a certain percentage of the votes needed to 
carry a piece of legislation, but that the necessary 
majority will be withheld. Thus a bill may fail 
by one or two votes. Sometimes it is agreed that 
a bill will be passed in one house and that the 
other house will assume the responsibility for 
voting it down, or delaying it in committee, or 
prolonging debate on the floor so that an ad- 
journment of the session comes before the bill 
can possibly be passed. 

Recently the failure to pass a certain bill was 
charged against the majority party in one state 
legislature. As a fact the majority party would 
have been obliged to give practically a unani- 
mous vote of its members in both houses in order 
to secure the required number of votes to pass 



120 The State Legislature 

the bill. The minority party gave just one vote 
to the bill in each of the two houses. 

Failure of Attempts to Regulate Legis- 
latures. — Attempts to regulate the legislature 
in its conduct have not been very successful. 
During an attempt to prevent bipartisan agree- 
ments in one legislature recently, nearly half the 
members struck. Day after day they sat in their 
seats, refusing to answer to roll call, declining to 
participate in debate, refraining from voting on 
bills. After two weeks of this impasse the re- 
formers gave in, and the strikers jubilantly cele- 
brated their victory. 

In another state it has become a habit for legis- 
lators who are outvoted to run away, thus break- 
ing a quorum and making any action by the body 
impossible. Under ordinary circumstances, 
when a quorum of the membership is not present, 
the presiding officer may be empowered to ask 
the sergeant-at-arms to find the absentees and 
bring them to their seats. In this situation the 
legislators remove themselves from the jurisdic- 
tion of the state entirely by going over the border 
into the next state and remaining until terms are 
negotiated or the session automatically ends. It 
has been charged that they have even taken this 
trip on passes from a railroad, whose interest in 
the legislation of the state is very great. 



CHAPTER VI 



THE THIRD HOUSE 



The Lobby.— The greatest of all legislative 
abuses is the control over it exercised by those 
who are entirely outside of the membership of the 
legislature, the 'third house/ that body of repre- 
sentatives or 'lobbyists' who are present in every 
state capitol urging the members of the legiti- 
mate two houses of the legislature to pass or de- 
feat bills according to the wishes of private 
interests instead of the public interest. Some- 
times the lobbyist is a quiet, unobtrusive traveler 
who has "just happened" to be in the city and is 
interested in watching the legislature at work. 
Sometimes he is himself a resident of the state, a 
lawyer, a claim agent for a railroad, or a repre- 
sentative of a merchant or manufacturer. Be- 
cause of the very difficulty of determining 
whether a lobbyist is serving the honest purpose 
of letting a legislator know the desires of a ma- 
jority of his constituents, or whether he is rep- 
resenting a minority of entrenched financial 

121 



122 The State Legislature 

interests, there is a present effort to secure legis- 
lation requiring the registration of all lobbyists, 
the names of their employers and the amount of 
money which they spend during the session. 

It does the citizen little good to be able to re- 
peat by rote the powers and duties of his state 
legislature unless he has at least equal knowl- 
edge of these sinister influences of invisible gov- 
ernment which attempt to pervert the system. 

Although stories of corruption and intimida- 
tion due to the activities of the 'third house' are 
current in nearly every session of every state leg- 
islature, the facts rarely come to public knowl- 
edge. Where they are exposed the insidious 
forces crumble, for invisible government made 
visible loses its power. 

The Tennessee Lobby. — One of the most 
glaring instances of attempted political sabotage 
exposed in recent years was the extra session of 
the Tennessee legislature of 1920, when the fate 
of the thirty-sixth ratification of the federal 
woman suffrage amendment hung in the balance 
and the most skillful lobbyists were gathered 
from all over the country in an unsuccessful at- 
tempt to debauch the handful of men who had 
gone from the cotton plantations and the cotton 
mills into the state legislature. 

All the state knew that, prior to the opening 



The State Legislature 128 

of the session, a majority of the legislators had 
pledged themselves to their constituents to pass 
the ratification resolution and it soon became clear 
that the fight to make these men repudiate their 
pledges was a fight not only for and against 
woman suffrage, but a struggle between the 'third 
house/ collected from all over the country, and 
the two houses of Tennesseans, elected by the 
people of Tennessee as their legislators. As such 
the story has an important place in the history of 
American government 

Charges against the 'third house' were made 
openly on the floor. One member of the legis- 
lature said, "What is a greater crime than for 
the interests from New York to San Francisco to 
send lobbyists here to ask you to break your 
pledges, or for certain newspapers connected with 
railroads to threaten you as they have been do- 
ing for days?" Another member opened his 
speech with these words, "When the special in- 
terests made an attack on this legislature last 
January they had a gang of lobbyists to put over 
their infamous bills. I recognize in the lobbies 
these same special interest servers. You have an 
opportunity on this occasion to rid this state of an 
incubus that has laid its claws in this legislature 
for fifty years. Let us show by our votes that the 
special interests are done in Tennessee." 



124 The State Legislature 

Methods of the Lobbyists.— How did the 
'third house' attempt to influence the legislators? 
Two men were given the third degree, being 
called to the telephone every few hours day and 
night, so that sleepless and worn, they might the 
easier yield to the promises and threats which 
were made them. Not only were the two men 
told that they would be defeated in the next elec- 
tion, but one of them was warned that if he stood 
by his pledge to vote for ratification he would 
lose the little district school where he was teach- 
ing. 

Positions in the internal revenue service were 
promised some of the legislators, until an appeal 
was taken to the President of the United States. 

Frequent attempts were made to get friendly 
legislators so drunk that they would perforce be 
absent when the vote was taken and two men 
were actually taken captive in an automobile and 
driven miles from town until one of them forced 
the abductor at the point of a pistol to return to 
the capitol. Affidavits against the moral charac- 
ter of one legislator were shown to him and he 
was told that secrecy was the price of his vote. 

In previous campaigns such as this both in 
Tennessee and in other states, good citizens had 
retreated when they saw the lengths to which the 
opposition was prepared to go, but in this case 



The State Legislature 125 

the battle was fought to a finish, the legislators 
kept the pledges they had made to their con- 
stituents and the 'third house' received one of the 
most thorough beatings in history. 

Good government would be tremendously 
helped if every voter understood that such ef- 
forts are made to prevent legislators from serv- 
ing their own consciences and the desires of their 
constituents. 

A legislator may be assured that invisible gov- 
ernment has already secured so strong a hold that 
if he fails to serve it, he will be made a 'horrible 
example. 5 Other horrible examples are pointed 
out to him, men who never get appointments on 
good committees, whose bills are always defeated, 
who cannot secure patronage which their con- 
stituents expect. Perhaps he is told that he will 
be helped or opposed at the next election by in- 
visible government. He is handicapped in telling 
the truth back home. Such charges are never 
popular and invisible government makes severe 
reprisals. Will his constituents, who want hon- 
est government, understand the situation? Will 
they show sufficient interest to help re-elect him 
if he stands for what they want? The often- 
quoted indifference of good voters may make 
the legislator hesitate. 

Pernicious Propaganda. — Another powerful 



126 The State Legislature 

agency for deceiving the voter and keeping him 
from realizing the significance of what is going on 
in the legislature is the ally which the 'third house' 
most frequently employs, propaganda. This 
may be compared to the third ring of the political 
circus, which distracts the attention of the voter 
from the two rings which he should be watching. 
Propaganda may be useful in creating public 
opinion for a good bill, but it is often used to con- 
ceal the real purpose of a bad bill or to discredit 
a good one. 

In a recent state campaign against a strong 
lobby of the 'third house,' the following statement 
was made regarding propaganda: "We have 
found that there exists in our state a dangerous 
subversion not only of legislative opinions, but of 
public opinions as well. We have found a condi- 
tion by virtue of which it is evident that it has been 
made exceedingly difficult for any constructive 
or industrial measure to get adequate and un- 
biased consideration before either the public or 
the legislative opinion of the state, and we have 
found that the influences at work, far from being 
invisible, are flagrantly and cynically open, and 
are rapidly becoming notorious. We call the at- 
tention of our legislators and of the public gen- 
erally to the fact that propagandism as created 
and financed by certain powerful, vested inter- 



The State Legislature 127 

ests is assuming a highly potent, though unregu- 
lated, political and governmental function, 
Propagandism would seem, in fact, to be taking 
the place of political 'bossism' such as ruled the 
state ten or twenty years ago. Since the people 
now have more or less direct control of political 
party machinery it has become impossible for one 
or two or three 'bosses' at the top to command 
legislative action at will without regard for the 
possible resentment of the people. For the sup- 
port of various little 'bosses/ in or out of the legis- 
lature, certain special interests have inaugurated 
a campaign of pseudo-patriotic propaganda 
which has been used to confuse the people as a 
whole with regard to the real nature of such legis- 
lation as these particular interests may choose to 
consider 'undesirable/ " 

The Lobby and the Newspaper.— The news- 
papers of several large eastern cities recently dis- 
covered that a correspondent whom they had been 
paying for supposedly unbiased stories about a 
legislative fight was receiving a large salary as 
publicity representative for one of the important 
interests involved. They immediately sent staff 
writers to gather the real facts, but the correc- 
tions never caught up with the first stories which 
undoubtedly had a big part in defeating legisla- 
tion desired by the people of the state. 



128 The State Legislature 

In another case a lecturer was engaged to 
make a series of addresses on American ideals. 
After he had appeared in a dozen cities he learned 
that he was the 'dust thrower' for men who were 
following to organize against certain bills which 
were pending before the legislature and a state- 
ment was promptly made to that effect. 

That the 'third house' is responsible for many- 
more instances than these is certain. A great 
American statesman recently said, "This is the 
real urge in American politics. Invisible govern- 
ment is the foe of all right-thinking people and 
unless we can oust its agencies we shall not be 
able, no matter who is elected, to have good gov- 
ernment. I wish all the people of America could 
see the danger from this slimy thing which is re- 
sponsible for most of the bad laws and the bad 
execution of those laws." 

Surely each citizen must learn to know the 
'third house' as well as the authorized two houses 
of the legislature if he is to do his part that "gov- 
ernment of the people, by the people, for the 
people shall not perish from the earth." 



PART V 

CONGRESS AND ITS WORK 
UNDER THE PARTY SYSTEM 



CHAPTER I 

CONGRESS AND ITS POWERS 

The Two Houses.— The most discussed, the 
most criticized and the least understood institu- 
tion in American politics is the national law-mak- 
ing body, Congress. It consists of two houses. 
The upper house, or Senate, has a fixed member- 
ship of ninety-six, two members from each of the 
forty-eight states. The lower body, the House 
of Representatives, has a changing membership 
based on the population of the various states. 
The number is now set at four hundred and 
thirty-five, New York having the greatest repre- 
sentation, forty-three, and Delaware, Arizona, 
Nevada, New Mexico and Wyoming, the small- 
est number, one. Alaska and Hawaii each have 
one delegate, who is allowed to serve on certain 
committees and to take part in debate, but not to 
vote. The Philippine Islands and Porto Rico 
have resident commissioners with privileges simi- 
lar to those of the territorial delegates. 

Senators and Representatives receive the same 
131 



132 Congress and Its Work 

salary, seven thousand five hundred dollars an- 
nually. In addition they are allowed traveling 
expenses of twenty cents per mile for each mile 
from their homes to Washington and return each 
session. They also have stationery and office sup- 
ply allotments, are permitted to send all except 
personal letters without paying postage and are 
given the services of clerks and secretaries. 

Representatives are elected every two years. 
The states are divided according to population 
into congressional districts, the voters of each 
district choosing their own representative. All 
the voters of each state may participate in the 
election of the senators, who are given six-year 
terms, one-third of the ninety-six being elected 
biennially. The longer term and the common re- 
election, — three former senators served continu- 
ously for thirty-two years each — aid in keeping 
that house the more conservative of the two. 

The Sessions of Congress.— Although mem- 
bers are elected to Congress in November of the 
even-numbered years, they are not . called into 
regular session until a year from the following 
December, thirteen months later. This provision 
of the constitution is a survival of the days when 
it took six weeks for the news to reach Andrew 
Jackson at his home near Nashville, Tennessee, 
that he had been elected President of the United 



Congress and Its Work 133 

States, and another three months for him to travel 
by coach to the national capitol. In later years it 
has been subjected to much criticism, experience 
having demonstrated that when the voters turn 
one party out and put another in power in No- 
vember, the Congress of the succeeding Decem- 
ber to March does practically no work at all. 
This is true even when the incoming party al- 
ready has a majority in Congress for Senators 
and Representatives wait for the new adminis- 
tration to take the initiative in framing policies. 
The nation thus suffers from the delay of needed 
legislation and is put to the expense of an extra 
session to do what should have been done in the 
regular session. 

The session which convenes in December of the 
odd-numbered years continues so long as there is 
business to be transacted and is called the long 
session. The session which convenes in Decem- 
ber of the even-numbered years continues until 
noon on the following fourth day of March, when 
the members elected the preceding November 
take office and is called the short session. 

The President of the United States, who is 
empowered to adjourn Congress when it can 
come to no such agreement on its own account, 
may also convene extraordinary sessions. So fre- 
quently has this been done recently that during 



134 Congress and Its Work 

the ten years from 1910 to 1920 there was but one 
year, 1915, when the regular interval elapsed be- 
tween sessions. 

Historical Development of Congress. — Con- 
gress was created to be to the nation what the 
legislature was to the state. Although the situa- 
tion then was such that Madison complained that 
'the backwardness of the best citizens to engage 
in the legislative service gave too great success 
to unfit characters/ the founders of the republic 
saw no better model than that offered by the 
state legislatures. 

The federal constitution was not framed to re- 
quire Congress to hold public sessions, but it does 
provide that "each House shall keep a Journal 
of its proceedings, and from time to time publish 
the same, except such parts as may in their judg- 
ment require secrecy." 

At first the Senate took advantage of its pre- 
rogative to keep its sessions secret, but in 1799 it 
admitted spectators to its debates. The House 
of Representatives practised no such conceal- 
ments and during the first thirty years of its ex- 
istence was the center of public interest and 
authority. It exercised considerable control over 
both federal and local political affairs. 

During the first years of Congress practically 
all the political questions of the day were dis- 



Congress and Its Work 135 

cussed in their relation to the constitution. The 
opening of lines of transportation and communi- 
cation, the admission of new states and the an- 
nexation of territory, the tariff and international 
affairs were all made matters of constitutional 
interpretation and argued from the viewpoint of 
that most fertile cause of controversy in this 
country, federal versus state's rights. Although 
the abolition movement brought orators forward 
in political affairs, it is lawyers who have pre- 
dominated in Congress from the beginning down 
to the present time. A recent survey of the mem- 
bership showed that of the ninety-six Senators, 
no fewer than sixty-eight were lawyers. Thir- 
teen were business men, six newspaper pub- 
lishers, three doctors, two farmers, and four 
unclassified. Of the four hundred and thirty- 
five Representatives, two hundred and sixty-eight 
were listed as lawyers. 

The Powers of Congress. — The confirmation 
of treaties and presidential appointments is 
vested solely in the Senate. Charges of impeach- 
ment of high public officials are laid first before 
the House, which decides whether the charges 
shall be preferred before the Senate. Revenue- 
raising bills also originate in the House. 

The legislation which Congress is empowered 
to enact and which requires the consent of both 



186 Congress and Its Work 

houses includes control of money-raising, taxing, 
etc.; commerce, naturalization; bankruptcy; 
money coinage; weights and measures; punish- 
ment of counterfeiting and piracy ; postoffices and 
postroads ; copyrights ; tribunals below the supe- 
rior court; declaration of war; raising and pro- 
viding for army and navy; organizing of militia 
and control of certain conditions ; government of 
the nation's Capitol. 

Congress also exercises considerable control 
over the members of the cabinet. In addition to 
the Senate confirmation of their appointments, 
the two houses of Congress decide the salaries and 
duties of each, the number of their assistants and 
their duties, the creation of subordinate bureaus 
and appropriations for their entire departments. 

Besides their direct work in Congress, mem- 
bers also look after the interests of their constitu- 
ents in other respects, especially in connection 
with the federal departments. Thus a member 
of Congress may spend several hours each day 
seeking appointments or pensions for individuals, 
urging the establishment of a federal institution 
in a certain locality or the transference of a pro- 
posed institution away from a locality at the re- 
quest of the community itself, or in answering 
dozens of other requests. 



CHAPTER II 

THE ORGANIZATION OF CONGRESS 

The Struggle for Leadership. — The months 
preceding a session of Congress are filled with 
what is termed 'wire-pulling/ the efforts of mem- 
bers to secure positions of party leadership and 
chairmanships and memberships of the important 
committees in both houses. New members go to 
Washington and old members gather as well to 
pledge votes for themselves. The party in power 
has the positions of greater importance. It se- 
lects from its membership the officials of the two 
houses, all of the chairmen of committees and the 
majority of memberships on all committees. 
Men who are ambitious for these appointments 
enlist the aid of important party leaders both in- 
side and outside of Congress and sometimes the 
struggle continues down to the very hour of the 
party caucus at which the election is made sure. 

In the House the Republicans appoint what is 
called a 'committee on committees/ which guides 
the choice of the caucus. The Democratic mem- 

137 



188 Congress and Its Work 

bers of the committee on rules perform a similar 
service for their party. In the Senate the caucus 
itself makes its own decisions. A member who 
is not in harmony with the leaders in his party, 
or who displays any considerable amount of in- 
dependence finds it impossible to secure caucus 
endorsement for any important position. 

Organization of the House o£ Representa- 
tives.— In the House the leading position to be 
filled is that of presiding officer, or speaker, who 
ranks in Washington official life immediately 
after the President and Vice-President. The 
Speaker, as a matter of course, is always a mem- 
ber of the party in power. In addition, both 
^parties appoint what are purely party officials, a 
floor leader, one or two 'whips' and a steering 
committee. The majority floor leader, or some 
one he asks to represent him, always makes the 
motion to adjourn or take recess. Whether the 
House adjourns or takes recess at the end of the 
day is exceedingly important, since this deter- 
mines the order of business for the succeeding 
morning. Sometimes the minority party protests 
vigorously against the decision as to recess or ad- 
journment; and toward the close of a session, 
when it is difficult to secure the floor for any busi- 
ness, this motion has the greatest significance. It 
is also the duty of the majority leader to see that 



Congress and Its Work 139 

the policies determined upon by the steering com- 
mittee of his party are carried out upon the floor; 
and to this end it is essential that he should be a 
good parliamentarian, to take advantage of tech- 
nicalities of floor procedure and to outwit oppo- 
nents. The steering committee decides what is 
good party policy on all party questions, and 
which bills it is wise to push. It greatly depends 
upon the qualifications of the members of this 
committee what legislation is actually passed. 

The 'whip' has a great responsibility since he 
must see that when a vote is to be taken the mem- 
bers of his party are present or accounted for. 
Great indeed is his wrath and that of his party 
if he fails to see that a sufficient number of mem- 
bers are 'whipped into line' to vote in accordance 
with the policies decided upon by the steering 
committee and guided by the floor leader. The 
minority party 'whips/ steering committee, and 
floor leader fill the same positions for their party, 
only with less power than those of the majority 
party, and the minority floor leader is always 
recognized as the spokesman for his side of the 
House. 

Organization of the Senate. — The Senate is 
presided over by the Vice-President of the 
United States, but it also elects a president pro 
tempore from the majority party, and each party 



140 Congress and Its Work 

has its floor leader, steering committee, and one 
whip. The party positions are not ratified by 
the body of either House, but the Speaker, presi- 
dent pro tempore, committee chairmen, and mem- 
bers must all be voted upon after the caucus re- 
ports are submitted. The nominations made by 
the caucus of the majority party always prevail, 
although there is sometimes fear that this will not 
be so. 

When the party in power has a scant majority 
of one or two, there are sure to be some members 
who take advantage of the situation, either to 
exact desired positions or the promise of certain 
legislation to secure their vote, or independent 
members who object to the giving of offices to no- 
torious conservatives or reactionaries. There was 
a recent instance of this kind, where one indepen- 
dent member of the Senate, by voting with the 
minority, could defeat all of his party candidates. 
It had been threatened that he would do so, unless 
certain nominees of his party were withdrawn. 
When the actual moment to vote came, he stood 
by his party, and there was an audible murmur 
in the Senate galleries while members of his party 
who had not spoken to him for months rushed 
down the aisle to shake his hand. In another re- 
cent instance the successful candidate of one po- 
litical party was considered to be at heart more 



Congress and Its Work 141 

friendly to the opposing party and it was believed 
possible that he might start his senatorial career 
by voting for the nominees of the opposing party. 
He did not do so, however, and it may be assumed 
with great certainty that the members of each 
party will almost inevitably vote for the nominees 
of their own caucus. 

Although it is clear that the party leaders 
under such a system of organization have tremen- 
dous control over both Houses, their power is 
considerably less today than it has been in the 
past. In the House it was the procedure for 
many years up to 1911 for the Speaker to appoint 
the committee members and until 1910 to have the 
right to recognize only such members as he chose 
to allow the floor in debate. A revolt against 
domination by the Speaker caused the curtailing 
of much of his power. 

Standing Committees.— So great is the 
power of the committees and their chairmen that 
the United States itself has been called 'a gov- 
ernment by chairmen.' Recently exceptions have 
been made to what was formerly a hard and fast 
rule, which contributed greatly to the power of 
committee chairmen. This was the seniority sys- 
tem, by which the representative of the party in 
power, who had been longest a member of the 
committee was given the chairmanship, regard- 



142 Congress and Its Work 

less of fitness. The argument in favor of the 
seniority system was that when a man had been 
a committee member for many years he was toler- 
ably familiar with the work of the committee. 
On the other hand, a weak or illy-equipped man 
may retain his seat in Congress, or a man whose 
ideas are not at all in accord with those of the 
majority of the people along a certain line may 
stay for years on a committee, and not even be a 
good member of the committee, much less fitted 
to act as its chairman. 

Another innovation which is regarded with 
favor was made in the House of Representatives, 
where the majority party ruled that no man who 
was on one of ten principal committees should 
serve on any other committee. Previous to that 
time a group of strong and powerful members 
could hold between them all the places on all of 
the important committees. 

Most of the legislation enacted by Congress is 
determined by committees. Their recommenda- 
tions usually decide the action in either House 
and so they either may make practically certain 
the victory of a bill or may assure its defeat or its 
delay so that no action at all is taken upon it. 

While most of the committee proceedings are 
conducted in secret or executive session, it fre- 
quently happens that a committee will hold open 



Congress and Its Work 148 

hearings where interested citizens may declare 
themselves for or against bills. As a source of 
general information these hearings sometimes 
prove of the greatest value. On the other hand 
members wishing to delay legislation will drag 
out hearings, stimulating the introduction of new 
witnesses, cross-examining those who appear and 
devising such means of delay that the proposed 
legislation is never passed. 



CHAPTER III 

THE LEGISLATIVE PROCESS 

The Introduction of Bills, — Each Congress 
passes a relatively small number of the bills pre- 
sented to it. In a recent session, for instance, 
22,594 bills were introduced and 543 passed. 

Causes of the Defeat of Bills.— There are 
two contributing causes to the defeat of bills. 
One is the opposition by members themselves or 
by interested citizens outside of Congress who 
for various reasons desire to have certain bills 
killed. The other cause is the slow-moving pro- 
cedure of Congress, by which bills are smothered, 
sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintention- 
ally. Those who are working from outside to 
defeat bills will have hundreds and thousands of 
letters and telegrams sent from voters to mem- 
bers of Congress. They circulate petitions and 
get signatures in opposition to the bills, which 
they present to the members of Congress. They 
hold mass meetings and prevail upon newspapers 
to attack the bills. Sometimes the opposing in- 

144 



Congress and Its Work 145 

fluences brought to bear upon them are so strong 
that members of Congress are compelled to fight 
the bills, either through secret arrangements with 
their colleagues or in open debate on the floor. 
Those who favor bills are obliged to resort to 
similar methods in order to prove that the voters 
desire the bills passed. 

It must always be borne in mind, therefore, 
that bills introduced before Congress have this 
double struggle, both to prove to members of 
Congress that the people really desire this legis- 
lation and to survive the tedious, long-drawn-out 
processes which characterize the deliberations of 
our national law-making body. 

Referring of Bills to Committees. — In the 
House of Representatives a member introduces 
a bill by placing it in a basket and rising on the 
floor to announce that fact. The bill is then 
referred to a committee. The presiding officer 
may wish to make the reference to a committee 
known to be friendly or unfriendly to this par- 
ticular piece of legislation, but he has far less 
latitude in this regard than the presiding officer 
in a state legislature. For Congress is governed 
not only by rules but by precedents, which are so 
seriously regarded as to be printed for reference. 
If a member can point to either a rule or a prece- 
dent for the reference of a bill or for any other 



146 Congress and Its Work 

proposal he wishes to make, he is fairly certain to 
he upheld. 

Once in committee the bill may be smothered 
and no action taken on it at all, or it may be de- 
feated in the committee, or amended, or reported 
back to the House with a favorable recommenda- 
tion or an unfavorable recommendation. If re- 
ported back to the House the bill goes to one of 
two calendars. Appropriation bills or private 
bills, such as those relating to pensions and 
awards, go to what is called the Calendar of the 
Whole House or the Calendar of the State of the 
Union, which has certain rights of precedence 
over the other calendar. Other bills go to what 
is called the House calendar. 

Procedure in the House. — Then comes the 
struggle to get time for discussion on the floor, 
except in the matter of reports or bills from the 
committees on printing, elections, ways and 
means, appropriations, which are termed 'privi- 
leged' and in both House and Senate have certain 
rights of precedence over all other bills. 

tJnder ordinary conditions, the chairman of a 
committee in the House of Representatives who 
has reported a bill of which he is in favor applies 
to the rules committee for a rule to bring the bill 
on the floor. The rules committee may or may 
not have hearings on the bill, but it does decide 



Congress and Its Work 147 

whether or not it will give place to the measure. 
If it decides to allow it time, the committee re- 
ports that fact to the House, announcing also the 
date, the hour and the period allowed for debate 
with the names of the two members who will con- 
trol the division of the time between the affirma- 
tive and negative speakers. When the appointed 
day and hour arrives there may be debate on the 
acceptance of the report from the rules commit- 
tee. But once the report is adopted the time is 
controlled as it has provided and no member is 
permitted to have the floor except those listed by 
the two members in control of the time. At the 
conclusion of the alloted period the vote must be 
taken on the bill. 

Procedure in the Senate. — The procedure 
in the upper House is entirely different. There 
the difficulty is not so much in getting the bill on 
the floor for discussion, as in getting a vote once 
the bill is on the floor. Appropriations and a few 
special bills have a separate calendar. Other bills 
go to the calendar of general orders and are called 
by number once a week, usually on Monday. 

Suppose this bill which is so much needed by 
the country has survived all this procedure and 
gets as far as the general calendar. It is called 
by its number on a Calendar Monday. If one 
member objects, the bill must go over. 



148 Congress and Its Work 

On the other hand, if there is no objection a bill 
may be adopted without debate and once recently 
with just five senators on the floor a very contro- 
versial bill was so adopted. As an indication of 
the amount of attention which even these five 
members were paying to the country's business 
when a few minutes later other Senators rushed 
on to the floor to demand a reconsideration, all 
but one of the five stated that they did not know 
what the bill was that they had just acted upon. 

Perhaps this important bill which the people 
want has two or three strong enemies among the 
members of the Senate. It may be clear to all 
that if the bill comes to a vote it will be passed, 
yet those two or three men can postpone its pas- 
sage by prolonged discussions, since the Senate 
has no limit on debate such as that in the House. 
Using debate to delay legislation is termed 'fili- 
bustering.' Sometimes it is the party dictators 
themselves who resort to filibustering to defeat a 
bill which may be desired by many good citizens. 

Filibustering to Kill Legislation. — Filibus- 
tering was resorted to by the southern senators 
in the administration of the second Harrison to 
defeat the 'force' bill. It has frequently been 
invoked since then. In fact the four Congresses 
from 1914-1918 each closed with a filibuster. 
Senator LaFollette has been one of the most 



Congress and Its Work 149 

noted exponents of the filibuster, Senator Allen 
is given credit for twenty-one hours of speaking 
when the Sherman act was under consideration, 
Senator Carter held the floor for eighteen hours 
during the vote on a rivers and harbors bill and 
Senator Smoot has a record of fifteen hours dur- 
ing the discussion of the shipping bill. 

In 1917 the Senate passed what is called the 
cloture rule to stop filibustering. Sixteen sena- 
tors must sign a petition to get cloture. The pe- 
tition must lie over for two days. Then the vote 
is taken and two- thirds of the Senate must be 
present and two-thirds of that number must vote 
in favor, in order to adopt cloture. After cloture 
is applied no member may speak for more than 
one hour. Since a filibuster usually develops at 
the close of a session, and ninety-six senators may 
each speak for one hour, cloture is not a great help 
in saving time for the passage of legislation. 

The Three Readings. — Every bill must go 
through the formality of three readings in each 
House. Sometimes only the title is read, some- 
times the amendments* made in committee. But 
the vote is not taken until the presiding officer 
announced the three readings. Minor points of 
difference are settled by viva voce vote, but bills 
are usually submitted by roll call so that each 
member is on record. 



150 Congress and Its Work 

The Bill in the Other House. — Providing 
the bill is passed in spite of all these difficulties, 
it is sent from the House which passes it to the 
other one. If the second House amends the bill, 
it is then returned to the one where it originated 
for acceptance. Refusal to accept forces a con- 
ference. Each House appoints its conferees and 
they may report several times before they are 
able to effect a compromise. The report of a con- 
ference committee is not subject to amendment 
and must be accepted or rejected as presented. 

Appropriation Bills. — Appropriation bills 
merit special consideration, since they occasion 
more frequent controversy than any other legisla- 
tion. The constitution provides that revenue- 
raising bills shall originate in the lower House 
and it has been the custom for appropriation bills 
to be framed there likewise. The procedure is 
for each federal department to send annually to 
the Secretary of the Treasury the estimates for 
its expenses. Since the amounts are always cut 
down, the departments pad these estimates to 
the fullest extent and the Secretary of the Treas- 
ury is only the compiler, with no authority to cut 
out duplications or to check undue extravagances. 
This list is then sent to the House, where it is 
divided between ten different committees. This 
separation has not tended to cut down extrava- 



Congress and Its Work 151 

gance or eliminate duplication. In 1920-21 the 
House formed a joint appropriation committee 
with thirty-five members to handle all appropria- 
tion bills, the Senate continuing to divide the 
work among seven committees. This reform was 
considered preparatory to the adoption of a na- 
tional budget system by which the method of 
handling might be made still more efficient. 

Veto.— Bills passed by both Houses are sent 
to the President of the United States for his sig- 
nature, before they may become law. If he re- 
fuses to sign a bill, he returns it to the House 
which sent it to him and it then requires a two- 
thirds vote by both Houses to pass it over his 
veto. If ten days elapse without the President 
of the United States taking any action whatever 
the bill becomes law without his signature. If, 
however, the President has not signed the bill and 
Congress adjourns before the expiration of the 
ten days, the bill is killed by what is termed a 
"pocket veto." 

Congressional Record. — Stenographic re- 
ports are taken of every session of Congress and 
committee hearings. The committee hearings are 
published separately, but the account of each 
day's session is printed in what is called the Con- 
gressional Record, the reports for any day always 
being issued the following morning. Each Sena- 



152 Congress and Its Work 

tor has eighty-eight copies and each Representa- 
tive sixty copies of the Congressional Record 
daily. Constituents may sometimes be placed 
on the free list of a member, receiving the Record 
each day during the session, but members prefer 
to send the copies bound to the libraries in their 
districts. It is also possible to subscribe for the 
Record, which is an excellent way of following 
the proceedings of Congress. The public distri- 
bution of the Record and the reprinting from it 
at small cost of speeches made by members gives 
rise to the making of speeches solely for the Rec- 
ord. That is, a member may secure the floor and 
talk for some time with no intention of affecting 
pending legislation, but only of affecting the 
votes of his constituents. In the House members 
'ask leave to extend their remarks/ which means 
that men who have taken no part whatever in a 
discussion carefully write out a speech and it is 
printed in the Record exactly as though it had 
been delivered on the floor. 

Pairing. — While it is true that members have 
much work to do for their constituents in the va- 
rious federal departments, the general habit of 
leaving the floor in both Houses while the session 
is in progress is much to be deplored. Often 
business is being transacted when only five or six 
members are present and it is a constant habit in 



Congress and Its Work 158 

the Senate for all but two or three members to 
leave the floor when a long speech is made. It 
seems reasonable to believe, if members were re- 
quired to be in their seats all during the course 
of the day, that means would be devised to check 
undue debate and delay. Absentee members are 
greatly aided by the pairing system. Pairing is 
not a rule, but is a much-honored custom of both 
Houses. It is usual for members at the beginning 
of the year to make what is termed a general 
pair. That is, two men with opposing views, 
practically always of opposing parties, will pair. 
That means that if one of the pair is absent, the 
other will withhold his vote. Thus any man may 
be away from the floor, secure in the knowledge 
that his absence will not affect the fortunes of his 
cause. When members expect to be away from 
the city for several days they may arrange spe- 
cial pairs, covering certain votes which will come 
up during their absence. In addition to encour- 
aging absence from the floor, pairing is con- 
demned as enabling men to evade responsibility 
for their votes in a way which they could not do if 
they were present. 



CHAPTER IV 



LEGISLATIVE ABUSES 



Wasting Time. — The abuses of Congress 
may be divided into three classes, those which 
waste the public time, those which waste the pub- 
lic money, and those which are destructive of 
public interests. The ways of wasting time are 
principally making speeches for the Record and 
filibustering, already mentioned, and the calling 
of the roll in the House. It requires about forty 
minutes to call the roll in the House, and a favor- 
ite method of delaying proceedings is to demand 
frequent roll calls. There is agitation for the 
substitution of an electrical system of roll call 
which would take less time. Waste of time means 
waste of money to the nation, for it has been esti- 
mated that it costs about ten thousand dollars a 
minute to run Congress. 

Waste of Public Money.— One of the great- 
est wastes of money is the abuse of the franking 
system, or the free use of the mails to which mem- 
bers are entitled. It was brought out recently 

154 



Congress and Its Work 155 

that a member of Congress, who desired to be 
elected governor in his own state, was sending 
out packages of books as gifts to voters. In one 
day alone he was said to have sent out 640,000 
of these packages. The government must have 
paid a large amount for the printing; and the 
postage alone at regular rates would have been 
forty-five cents a package, or $325,000. Many 
members have adopted the custom of sending a 
piece of literature to each of their constituents 
once a week or once every few days. 

Another gift made frequently, especially in 
country districts, is bound copies of the funeral 
orations which are delivered in Congress and 
whose bindings make them desirable ornaments. 

Then there are the garden seeds, for which ap- 
propriations of hundreds of thousands of dollars 
are made annually. Garden seeds are the special 
gift of members of the House of Representatives, 
but any voter who receives a package may well 
remember that it is the public funds, the taxes of 
the people, which have been spent in this effort 
to attract votes to Representatives. 

Patronage and the Pork Barrel. — Still more 
expensive to the public purse are patronage and 
'pork barrel' possibilities. All of the positions 
about the Capitol are given as patronage. Every 
doorkeeper, every elevator man, every attendant 



156 Congress and Its Work 

in the dressing rooms, is on the patronage lists of 
some member. The two greatest 'pork barrel' 
projects have always been the public buildings 
appropriations and the rivers and harbors ap- 
propriations bills. Members who wanted to get 
new buildings, postoffices, revenue collectors' of- 
fices, or bridges, found it necessary to be good 
friends with the chairmen of these committees. 
Recently the steering committee of the party in 
power in the House has ruled that these bills 
may contain no projects not already secured by 
bills passed by Congress ; so this particular form 
of graft has been somewhat curtailed. Members 
still lobby to increase appropriations for their dis- 
tricts and trade votes with each other on bills, 
the latter being called 'log-rolling.' 

Loss of Public Interest. — Of the practises 
destructive to public interest, none is more seri- 
ous than that of control of members by a spirit of 
sectionalism. Members are usually concerned in 
getting what their constituents want and advanc- 
ing the interests of that particular part of the 
country from which they come, instead of looking 
to the welfare of the nation as a whole. Few take 
the point of view of Daniel Webster, who re- 
ferred to himself not as the representative of his 
state, but of the United States. 



CHAPTER y 

SOME SUGGESTED REMEDIES 

Reforms In Committees.— To regulate the 
use of power by committees, it has been urged that 
greater publicity be given to committee proceed- 
ings, that committees be required to make some 
report on all bills and be prohibited from smoth- 
ering any. The election by each committee of its 
own chairman, rather than the choice of chairmen 
by the party caucus is also advocated. 

Decreasing the Power of the Lobby.— The 
pressure which is brought to bear upon members 
of Congress to vote for measures for private in- 
terests rather than the public good is one of the 
most destructive phases of the entire system. 
Lobbying is the technical term applied to the 
work of those who are present during legislative 
sessions, seeking to influence members of Con- 
gress. Certain strong commercial interests main- 
tain a permanent lobby in Congress. Their rep- 
resentatives are always present in the galleries. 
They watch all that goes on and by frequent let- 

157 



158 Congress and Its Work 

ters and visits they seek to impress their views 
upon members. Sometimes lobbyists are them- 
selves former members of Congress, with the 
right to go on the floor and mingle with the pres- 
ent members. In fact, so widespread has the sys- 
tem become, that a member of Congress will often 
talk or even dine with an old friend, who seems 
sincerely interested in a certain bill and cleverly 
presents arguments which carry much weight. 
Later the congressman will discover that the sup- 
posedly unprejudiced citizen was a highly paid 
employee of some concern with a vital interest in 
the proposed legislation. Bills have been intro- 
duced requiring all lobbyists to register their 
names, the names of the organizations they repre- 
sent and the amounts of money which they spend 
during a session, but no such bill has been passed. 
While a law of this kind might be helpful in en- 
abling members to sift prejudiced opinions from 
disinterested ones, the only effective way to coun- 
ter-balance the efforts of lobbyists is for citizens 
generally to formulate their own opinions on po- 
litical questions and then to inform their repre- 
sentatives in Congress how they wish them to 
vote. 

The Responsibility of Voters.— Burke's 
comment, in 1770, on the English political sys- 
tem is applicable to our American institution 



Congress and Its Work 159 

today. "Where there is," he said, "a regular 
scheme of operations carried on, it is the system, 
and not any individual person, who acts in it, that 
is truly dangerous." "Political leaders," he con- 
tinued, "contrived to form in the outward admin- 
istration two parties at least, which, whilst they 
are tearing one another to pieces, are both com- 
petitors for the favor and protection of the cabal ; 
and by their emulation contribute to throw every- 
thing more and more into the hands of the interior 
managers." 

Later, after the founding of our own republic, 
Madison observed that "in all legislative assem- 
blies the greater the number composing them, 
the fewer will be the men who in fact direct the 
proceedings." 

This control by a few leaders, whose operations 
are hidden from the general body of voters, and 
the difficulty of placing responsibility upon the 
individual members of Congress or the party in 
power, have led to a serious defect. The voters, 
becoming dissatisfied with conditions and not 
realizing the underlying evils of the system itself, 
have turned one party out and put another in. 
Questions of national policy, platform principles, 
efficient administrators, have all been thrust aside 
at times and elections have been carried on the 
sole issue of a change of party. It has been said 



160 Congress and Its Work 

that the two major political parties are exactly 
like bottles with different labels — both empty. 
Voters who have turned one party out to put an- 
other in, defeated one man to elect another, with- 
out any effect upon the system, are likely occa- 
sionally at least to agree with this statement. 

Until the voters realize that it is the system 
which is at fault, they will be powerless to effect 
any real reform. Men are elected to Congress 
and go to Washington with high ideals. They 
come in contact with the system which has been 
working these many years. They feel themselves 
helpless against it. One of two things happens. 
Either they accept the system and in time become 
so accustomed to it that they think it the only 
system, or they rebel, in which case political lead- 
ers make them ridiculous in the public eye and at 
the next election such men decline to serve again 
or suffer defeat at the hands of their constituents. 

The solution is with the voters. With intelli- 
gent support from their constituents, a very few 
men could make much-needed reforms in the sys- 
tem. With every voter willing to work for it, 
good government would quickly become an estab- 
lished fact. 



